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When you first started to tour solo, how did it compare to when you toured with Hot Water Music? It was certainly easier and less stressful. Much more enjoyable. At that time HWM had been on a serious grind and we were all haggard beyond belief. After the hiatus I began touring with my own work, it was usually just my wife and I. We came and went as we pleased, it was always peaceful and positive and everything ran smooth. It was just refreshing. At least compared to how I was used to touring back then.
Since Hot Water Music reformed, has it been hard or easy to balance what you are doing solo wise, to your commitments with the band? It's been pretty tough. There is a lot of pressure since the guys and a lot of folks are excited about the new HWM work, so that can always make it hard. Especially since I've been moving in a completely different direction for some years. It's a constant struggle to find a balance and to be honest, I've yet to find it. I've made my solo work and The Revival Tour my top priority and it's been tough to find a medium. I have a tendancy to try and please everyone around me before tending to my own needs, health or time and sometimes my families needs first and that's never positive. The balance will come but in doing so, there has always got to be sacrifices.
What was it like to tour with the awesome Gaslight Anthem, any cool memories from the road? New memories were made on a daily basis. They took Jon and I onto their bus with them and offered up their home. We love that gang very much and respect what they do and how they're doing it. It was a blast and we look forward to the next.
As well as this you toured with Frank Turner! How was that? Frank's a great friend and works extremely hard at what he does. We've had nothing but wonderful times with him on the Revival Tour's that he's been on and I can't wait to have him back on it. The UK tour with Frank was fantastic but they were blasting off on a new release at the time and we didn't see as much of them. Mostly in passing or for a few at the end of the night but they were all very kind gentlemen and put on an incredible performance.
What can you tell us about your new album "Covering Ground"? The majority of the songs were written on the road or about the road. It's a simple collection of tunes that speak of love, loss, the glories and the trials of living a nomadic lifestyle as a touring musician. I've moved around the majority of my life. As a child growing up or with my parents and then into a band. I wouldn't change any of it for the world since I'm very grateful as to where I am and who is close to me in my life, but nevertheless, it is a struggle at times but there are peaks and beautiful things that happen while living it as well. To me, if anything effects you as strong as that in your life, it's worth telling a story about it, documenting it or passing it on to share your heart as well as letting the younger generation know where you came from in hopes of them not making the same mistakes you've made or finding the same glories you've found.
How would you say it compares to your previous releases? It's a broader scope of where we are today. "Gold Country" was more so about the "now" in terms of living in the moment and working to get home alive and in one piece. "CG" seems to touch base on the past, present and the future for us more so in many ways.
What is it like being on SideOneDummy? They're top notch. I love em to death and feel comfortable in the fact that I can call anyone of them on the phone to catch up and they do the same. It is a business relationship built around a friendship first. They didn't have to do this record and I didn't have to stay with them. We both decided to do so because we couldn't see it any other way. I couldn't be more pleased to be apart of that team and to have them apart of mine.
How excited are you for your tour with Brian Fallon and what can attending fans expect? I'm thrilled to be playing with Brian as well as Dan Andriano and Dave Hause. It's going to be a very special run. What's really unique about The Revival Tour is that not only are no two tours the same, but no two nights are the same. Songs are constanly added and subtracted so for people seeing multiple nights, there's always something new to anticiapate. I'd highly recommend for people to be there from the very beginning. Otherwise, you may miss one of your favorites singing one of your favourites. You never know what's going to happen or what to expect, but after you see your first Revival Tour, you'll always know you'll have a great time.
You did a split with Brian Fallon a while back, do you have any other projects like this on the go? Ten Four Records is releasing The Revival Tour 2011 Collections for the tour. We'll have it available at the merch table as well as through distro with Cargo and our merch store. It's a fantastic collection of songs both new and unreleased from the four of us involved. It's very exciting and we can't wait to get it out to you folks!
What does the future hold for your solo work? After Revival, come Nov. 1st I'll be connecting again with Social Distortion to finish out the year with them in the States up to Christmas. In the meantime we're working on the next run of The Revival Tour in the spring of 2012 for the States, as well as working on HWM stuff. So to say the least, it's full steam ahead. Much respect friends. We'll see you down the road!
Interview with Chris Freeman
How has the new album gone down with fans so far then? The feedback from fans has been overwhelmingly positive. Both on twitter and in person, people just seem to really have enjoyed listening to it. They also seem to enjoy it as a "whole album" as well. Which is nice because that's how we wanted it to be enjoyed, not just a couple of songs here and there or just the single.
Can you tell us a little bit about the concept/story behind your new album "Simple Math" ? Simple Math is about Andy and the things he and his wife went through in the first two years of marriage. Each song is very literal in the way he describes real conversations with his wife and God during a time that was very difficult.
So, When did you decide that you wanted to do a concept style album? Once Andy started singing about certain events and times in his life, the songs that ended up on the record seemed to sort of grow cohesively together. We had written a ton of songs for this one, but these songs just seemed to fit. I think that people are putting a lot of emphasis on the "concept" aspect of this record, which might skew the listeners experience on first listen. This record is a concept album because it's about a very specific time in Andy's life, not because it's about a guy walking through the woods trying to find food or something.
Musically, how would you say this album compares to your previous release "Mean Everything to Nothing" ? I think we got a lot better at our instruments in between METN and Simple Math. We had toured a ton before going back into the studio and that only makes you better as a musician and as a band. I think this record has more chill moments on it without being strictly acoustic tracks and is (naturally) more mature than what we have done before.
What is it you love so much about working with Dan Hannon? The fact that he's family. He knows how to work with us and knows how to pull things out of us that a new producer might not know how to do. The other great thing is that, with family, you can fight and you're not worried about them quitting. That, quipped with a lot of patience, can really relax the vibe of being in a studio.
How was it to record your first album without Jeremiah Edmond? It was interesting. No offense to Jer, but it was very freeing to have the ability to play with some amazing drummers. We were also able to explore a lot of styles that we wouldn't have been able to do with Jeremiah. Having Len, Ben and Tim in the studio with us was really fun to watch and listen as these three guys worked together to build these songs percussive parts as one piece. I don't think a lot of people get to do that with their friends, so we feel blessed.
Your video for "Simple Math" is fantastic, what can you tell us about the shooting for this video? Thank you, we love it too. The idea was brought to us by these directors out in Los Angeles, The Daniels. They were very enthusiastic about the project and the idea behind Simple Math. Our part in the filming for that video was primarily on Andy's shoulders since he was featured in the majority of the video. The rest of us just bounced around in a truck for a little while and then watched Andy work his ass off all day singing in reverse and rolling on the concrete. All of the layering was done after we had filmed our parts, so we put a lot of trust into those guys as well and it turned out brilliant.
The video has also been nominated by MTV's VMA's for "Best Editing" and "Best Special Effects" how proud were you when you found out about this? Unbelievably proud. Even if the nominations really have nothing to do with our part in the video, I'm still marking it down as a milestone. The fact that our name is in the company of Kanye is pretty amazing in and of itself.
What was the original idea behind the formation of "Bad Books" ? It started out far more casually than I think people would believe. Kevin just came to our studio to write a few songs with Andy and do some sort of collaboration to see how it goes, and then that record was done. They both just put material together and then we all played on it. Simple as that sounds, thatยนs really how it went.
What does the future hold for your project with Kevin Devine "Bad Books" will we see another release in the future? As long as we're hanging out with Kevin I'm sure we'll make music together again.
How excited are you for your UK tour and what can attending fans expect? We're very excited. After our last trip over and seeing such excitement over these tiny shows really made me appreciate our fans in the UK so much more. Just that people in a completely different country are aware of what we do is insane to me. Not only that, but that they know when we're going to be in their country and excited enough to stand in a sweaty room just to watch us play; That deserves respect. So they can expect us to put on the loudest, raunchiest set we can play for them. U.S. fans are spoiled, they see us at movie theatres two miles from my house. UK fans see us, like, once a year.
"Rise To Remain have been taking the UK by storm this year, their shows at Download and Sonisphere have shown that there is definitely a promising future for the band, and with the new album "City Of Vultures" just unleashed on the public this is the perfect time to discover an absolutely amazing band"
Interview with Austin Dickinson
What's it been like signing to EMI records, how have things changed and how are they treating you so far? Signing to EMI has been an amazing thing for us, we've been backed by a team of people who are not only talented, but very enthusiastic about what we can do together, so the only thing thats changed is the scale of possibility. We have so much freedom.
How was your UK tour this year with the awesome Funeral For A Friend? Any memories you would like to share with us? We had so much fun on that your, we managed to get to all sorts of places we hadn't been to in the UK before. Total sweatboxes too, everyone was so up for having a good time. I remember we played Wakefield and the temperature inside the room rivalled the fucking rainforest.
Interview with Austin Dickinson As well as this you played both Download Festival and Sonisphere Festival (again), how awesome was this? Any particular favorite of the two? Download and Sonisphere are two festivals that we've played many times now, and this year was definitely the biggest for us. Both were packed out, and it was amazing to see the difference from the last few times we've done them. First we were outsiders, then we were hyped, and this time, it was all our own fans. Loved it.
In 2010 you won the award for "Best New Band" from Metal Hammer, as well as the award for "Best British Newcomer" from Kerrang! how cool was this? Also does winning awards like this add any pressure to playing live or just writing music? We were both stoked and shocked at the awards, but what meant the most about them was definitely that people voted for us. I think that if an industry panel allocated us that award, we'd still be pleased, but it wouldn't be the same. If anything, winning the awards just raised the expectations, and we're happy with that, because we will fulfil them come hell or high water.
So, what can you tell us about your new album City Of Vultures? City Of Vultures came out of a long process of me realising the world around me, and the band. Material possessions do possess, and people sell and pick apart themselves to fit in to any given situation. Your always watched and judged. So, the city of vultures is a bit of a metaphor for the world today. However, it is a positive album. Its about creating your own identity and realising that no-one will define you better than yourself and your actions in life. Assume control and take responsibility, because people will respect that a lot more than welcoming the vultures to come pick you apart.
What was the recording process like for this album? We recorded the album with Colin Richardson and Carl Bown at Treehouse Studios in Chesterfield, and we recorded the drums in The Chapel Studios, which was in Lincolnshire. It took about 4 months to get everything done. It was very secluded, we were in our own space, we had our own world to work in. The nearest thing to us were bison and cows, so there were no distractions. It was the perfect environment for creating a focussed metal record.
How would you say your new material compares to what you did on your previous EP's? Its more mature, its got more of a "thread" running through it, its more dynamic, its bigger in terms of sound, scale and aspiration. All in all, its just better. We wrote the EP's when we were around 14-18, Pat and Joe's input on the Bridges Will Burn EP wasn't as big as it should have been due to the lack of new material, we re-recorded a lot of old songs for it, so this album is the sound of all five members combining and converging our ideas.
How come you guys did three EP's and then a studio album, I mean was it just a question of finding the right moment to release a full length, or was it something else entirely? We wanted everything to be 110% perfect for the album. We had it in the back of our minds for ages, every member of every band always dreams of releasing their first album. Its a very important event, its your first mark on the world. So, we figured it was better to keep people happy with tracks demonstrating what we could do with the EP's, tour, then release the album when the time was absolutely right. And that time is now.
Also, we read that you have had City Of Vultures ready to unleash on fans since January, so how come you wanted to release it in September? We could have released it at any point, but like I said, things need to be 110% right. Giving it that amount of leeway meant that we were able to really start working with our new label, tour and preview the songs to fans more, and most importantly, set the tone straight for what this album is about. You need to build it up and let people know its coming.These past nine months have been time well spent.
Has it not been frustrating waiting this amount of time to get the album out there? There have been times when I've wanted to just give people songs so they could listen, for sure. I always want to share our music. But I think that sticking to a release date is definitely better than just throwing stuff out there randomly.
How excited are you for your upcoming UK headline tour, and what should attending fans expect? We're all ecstatic to be finally headlining a UK tour. We've got our best friends out with us, The Safety Fire and Bleed From Within, and we're going to be hitting up so many different places on the map...I truly can not wait. If your heading down to a show, you are gonna have to pick your jaw up off the floor, because the line up is going to slay.
What can we expect to see from Rise To Remain in 2012? Bigger and better things! The rest of this year has shaped up to be unreal, and next year is just going to be bigger. And heavier.
So how did you guys get together? T: In the dirtiest, grimiest most notorious warehouse in Camden Park, South Australia, converted into rehearsal space/living area, We would spend late nights siphoning aged port from the barrels stored next door and stay up all night and write the coolest songs we could think of. N: 4 mates with a common liking of unruly noise! We first jammed together in an old warehouse in Adelaide, South Australia. We made our sound and wrote Teenage Rampage there! We also created the 'extreme hang' there, which is aka for 'almost a party'!
Interview with Tommy & Nicky J
What can you tell us about your new album ‘Teenage Rampage’ ? T: I can tell you a few things, whereas the album can probably definitely tell you more. I’ll tell you this Teenage Rampage IS the best album we have ever made to date, it’s also our debut album. We love it, our friends love it, our mums love it, girlfriends and lovers love it, our fans love it too! But not everyone loves it or will love it. Not everbody will be a fan or an aural accepter of D! .....BUT EVerYone will be there. And it’s gonna be the best. fucking. party. ever. and I can’t wait!
What bands have influenced you on this album and why? T: I’m really not too sure actually.... On the album I’m not sure Where things have come from, some things ring bells, nostalgic bells maybe. But generally I’m pretty unaware of where melodies and lines and parts have stemmed from .....it’s very much like wondering what drink made you spew I think....On your knees, you look at all the colours and things and bits and you think you can recognise what’s going on, but truth is, these things and colours and bits have gone in, been ingested, then digested and then regurgitated back up. What went in and what came out I don’t know. If Teenage Rampage were spewed up and all over a canvas, the picture would be made up of the same 'things' and 'bits' that went in, but would never be or look like the original. That’s all it is really - music - and Dangerous! is just a regurgitation. Only thing we are getting really good at it. And what came up actually looked good, almost a work of art. Then Epitaph bought it and released it worldwide.
How was your UK tour earlier this year? You hit Sonisphere, Download and Nass right? Any cool memories you want to share? T: First time to the UK for anyone in the band, EPIC! Huge, not really like Australia is it? Blew our fucking minds. A bunch of sight seeing, Good people, great music, fucking loads of cool clubs and bars we played. My vauge and scattered collected memories of the festivals are as follows: Camping, partying, mud, dangerous! show, more mud, backstage beers, phil anselmo, cheers, rain, another dangerous! show, fred durst, cheers, more beers, camping, tents, band mates, beers, no band mates, sun down sideways, the end. Best, greatest and COLDEST summer ever! N: Lining up for dinner at Sonisphere Fest with Fred Durst was sick! Download, Nass & Sonisphere were our first festival experiences so we're gonna have high expectations for future fests!
So what will we see from Dangerous! in 2012? N: There's a fold out Ouija board inside our album sleeve! So maybe by that point we'll be seeing familiar faces at Dangerous! shows like.. Jimi Hendrix, GG Allin, Dimebag?
“With the release of their seventh studio album Major/Minor, Thrice continue to prove their capabilities as one of the most established and legendary alt-rock bands around.�
So after 'The Artist In The Ambulance' you released 'Vheissu' and at this point it felt like the band was heading in a different direction in the way they sounded (still in an equally awesome way) is this the way your band progressed naturally, or did something else happen entirely? I think our original ideas in music were always somewhat moving in a different direction. Early on when we even made our first songs we were trying to do things differently... I think we wanted to be a punk rock band but we wanted to incorporate more than just one specific style to the music. We'd push some metal ideas in there or something more classical. It made the music really enjoyable to make, not only as a challenge but also just the process of experimenting and seeing what ideas were possible.
Interview with Ed Breckenridge
The direction you headed in, did seem a lot different for fans at the time, when exploring new music and sounds for albums, are you ever worried about what direction you are heading in? Not at all... I think we as a band all agree that we don't really understand what makes music "popular"... we've kind of always just done things our own way and hope other people enjoy it too. I definitely think we lost some fans over the years and also gained new ones, but the most important thing to us is that we are still excited to create. If we don't have that there's really no point.... regardless of how others feel about it.
On Alchemy Index when and how did you come up with the idea of releasing two different albums with two different concepts on each album? We were at a point in the band where we felt that we were almost shedding skin or something to that effect. We had actually talked early on about trying out this conceptual idea but under a different band name so people that knew who we were from previous records and had negative opinions about us and our earlier projects might take a listen without any preconceived notions of who or what our band was. We decided that by doing that, we would somewhat be buying into other peoples negative opinions and that giving that credit to naysayers would be like snubbing our fans that have supported us and grown with us through our musical journey. So we just went for it... A four disc concept album, and we pushed each element far off into their respective mood/feel/genre. It ended up being a means to end working with Island and also probably tossing many question marks above listeners heads, but i think it was healthy for the band and a great lesson in music.
Would you ever like to do something similar to this again, as in releasing two albums over two years with a theme running throughout? I would love to... but I think it would have to be the right time and place again. If a strong idea comes up I'm sure we would not pass it up.
Looking back now, how would you say that Alchemy Index has been received by your fan base over the years? I think it worked it's way into peoples hearts slow and steady. Which is great... many of my favorite albums to me take a while to really embrace. I think it was good for us to do because it was more telling of where our minds were at, and hopefully helped bring people closer to our more homogenized records. Making our influences a bit more apparent.
Why did you choose to release 'Yellow Belly' first of your new album Major/Minor? We chose Yellow Belly, because I think it was one of the first ideas while writing the record that really stuck in our heads. Riley had tracked the drum beat for the song with no music along with it and sent an mp3 of it to all of us to mess around with. Tep's came back with the riff and I had a bassline and they happened to work together. I think that riff Teppei made still gets stuck in my head occationally. (Which is annoying to me haha... last thing I want is for someone to hear me humming my own song.)
How have the fans reacted to your new material so far? I think pretty positively... I tend to not go around reading forums or comments. I can't help but focus on the negative... and I'm already hard enough on us as it is.
What can you tell us about your latest album Major/Minor? Personally I was listening to a ton of nineties indie rock and post hardcore music. I think after doing the Alchemy Index we came to enjoy playing and writing more stripped down rock music. You can go really far in music adding layers and effects, but I think sometimes it becomes distracting. With Beggars and Major/Minor there was a lot of jamming in the studio and a lot of on-the-spot twists and turns that the songs took. I think sometimes that in-the-moment writing breeds music that is more felt rather than intellectualized.
How was the recording process for this album? We wrote it in some of the last months we had in our home studio we built before Teppei moved up north near Seattle (the studio in his garage). It took us six to eight months but there was a lot of heavy stuff going on at the time...Teppei's mom had passed away... That was why he missed touring in the UK our last time out, and My father passed away in January, and the time leading up to it was the hardest times of my brother (riley, our drummer) and my life. The hard times continue beyond their passing... I don't think I will ever be okay with it.... We ended up recording it with Dave Schiffman who worked on Vheissu and Beggars and recorded it at Red Bull studios in Santa Monica. It was a great experience and the people at Red Bull were great. We only took two weeks to record it, which was much shorter than previous records. But we came prepared and Dave pushed us to not get hung up on unnecessary things.
Writing wise, didn't you guys write separately on this album? Before heading into the studio, How was this process? We usually all write individually... recording riffs or an entire verse/chorus or something that ends up being a bridge or whatnot. Then we get together, share them and kind of explain where the idea would like to go. Then we just go through the ideas and try to push them into full songs. Although... on this record some of the songs like Cataracts came about on the spot. I just started playing during a break, and the others joined in. It's pretty awesome when songs come together like that.
How would you compare your new album to Beggars? I mean we've read that this album is intended to be much more "bigger and in-your-face" in comparison? I would say it is more upbeat than Beggars. I think the songs are stronger and a carry more weight in groove and dynamic.
Artwork wise what can you tell us about the front cover of Major/Minor? Riley came up with this idea for us to take many pictures with low shutter speeds throughout the writing process. The slow shutter speed adds a blurry, time-laps of a specific moment in time. We all took tons of pictures and shared them and chose a few of each of ours to put in the album artwork. This didn't end up working out sadly because the quality of some of the best pictures ended up being too grainy when blown up to LP size. So in changing our plans we decided to have an artist make a mixture of some of the pictures we took with some artwork from an artist that Teppei had been diggin on at the time.
What can we expect to see from Thrice in 2012? In 2012 we should have a tour scheduled in spring hopefully before the world ends according to the Mayans.
Also, Will the UK ever see a Thrice/Glassjaw/Brand New show again? I'd do it in a heartbeat. I'd love to have Teppei with us this time though.
Interview with Ned Russin
"American pop-hardcore band Title Fight have built a solid underground following. Only two records into their career and riding the success of Shed, their full UK tour will commence in December. The future looks bright for Title Fight." Can you tell us a little bit about how the band got together? We started playing together in 2003 when we were 12 and 13 years old and just kind of kept at it. Since then, we've been to Japan and now have a record out on SideOneDummy called "Shed".
So you guys started this band when you were in school, was it hard to write and tour as much as you did and still do? Not really. We basically just practice on the weekends, but we weren't playing or writing as much. Even when we were in college it wasn't too bad. We did a 3 week tour with New Found Glory and I didn't make up any work and still did better than both of my roommates.
What bands have influenced you along the way and why? Our influences are always growing and changing but the ones that are always there are Jawbreaker, Texas is the Reason, Samiam, Seaweed, etc. We like those bands because they were good bands and wrote good and interesting music, and at the same time had a cool aesthetic.
Can you tell us about the recording and writing process for your latest album 'Shed' ? It took us a very long time to finish writing "Shed" but we spent a long time analyzing every single aspect of our writing. The writing process honestly took us over a year. The recording process was a lot of fun and our longest time in the studio yet. We spent 2 weeks in the studio working 12 hours a day with engineer Will Yip and producer Walter Schreifels to come out with a product that pleased all of us. We tracked it live and did some over dubs to clean everything up, but keep the live, raw feel.
Interview with Brendan B. Brown
What's the concept or theme behind your "Pop, Songs & Death" volumes? The unanticipated arc of a life. When we began our career it was in the mid 90's. I feel as though whatever optimism the world was sharing in prior to September 11 2001 (which marked the height of our 1st album's World touring) all got sucked out & survival mode was implemented. Boiling that global sentiment down into the arc of an individual experience is what P,S & D is about. Most of us allow Pop culture into our lives, some of us go deeper still & experience Songs, but we all Die alone. It makes for a pretty steep curve. We've replaced lyric sheets with comic books this time. I think that helps with the staging of it all.
Why did you want to do it in two separate volumes? It'll eventually be 9 volumes. The recording process this time around works more sensibly in 6 song chapters. The songs are somewhat long & technically challenging. Six songs per session is when we've about reached our burn out point.
What can you tell us about the single "The Story Of The Eggs" ? It's a conversation between 2 lovers who come to NYC at the beginning of an economic growth cycle. It traces their seemingly perfect yet, ultimately unravelling love affair through all the stages of boom and bust. I wanted to explore the notion of American lives & whether or not they have second acts.
Why did you choose to release this as a single? I felt like it was the best way to introduce people to the music we're making these days, people who might only know Teenage Dirtbag.
You've used a "pay what you like download" system on a lot of your material, how did this idea come up, and how well has it been received by fans? Well I first pitched a similar idea to SONY in 2002. They kinda laughed me out of the room. As soon as we were able we set up our own version, albeit 6 years later. IMHO It is the single best way to offer people your art. If they love and respect it they'll pay. It's a pure transaction. The only thing you have going for you financially is your ability to make people feel something genuine. We've had a wonderful response so far.
As a band, how do you guys go about putting a song together? I write them. I demo them on a laptop. Then I give them to the guys & girls & I sing them the parts. When it comes to final recordings I'm changing things on the fly very often because the reality of performance can bring important insights about what I hear in my head. Once we've learned it to the point of insanity we begin to track for final takes. No protools editing, no auto-tune...just waiting for & working toward the right performance.
Brendan B Brown How does it feel to have bands like Weezer covering your tracks? Such an honor to have that happening. I've been a heavy Weezer fan since Blue. Pinkerton is one of my favorite albums of all time. I happened to think that Red is a masterpiece as well, if for no other reason, the BSide, Miss Sweeney. I wish I wrote that song. It is immensely awesome!
In 2000 we saw the release of your self titled album "Wheatus" with this in mind, how would you say your bands sound has progressed since this point? Honestly, I think we've turned into a bit of a prog hard rock band. I've sort of worshiped Rush, Yes & AC/DC since childhood. I think that's all beginning to make it's point felt. While our production aesthetic remains eclectic, the epic heavy orchestrations are beginning to happen a lot. The next record is going to be a bit more dense in that regard only with shorter songs.
What should fans expect from your upcoming UK shows?! Lotsa new stuff with & the same degree of old stuff...PLUS at least one thing we've never ever done, ever.
What does 2012 hold for the mighty Wheatus? Will we see another studio album maybe? Yes...We'll be rereleasing album 1 in 2012 & The next new record possibly in 2013 but definitely coming at you with Pop, Songs & Death Volume 3.
"If you were at Reading/Leeds festival last year I am sure you will remember Weezer covering the classic tune Teenage Dirtbag, this factor alone shows off that Wheatus are such an important band, Wheatus will be heading to the UK shortly and to be honest we can't wait!"
Photo Credit: Paul Harries
Interview with Ryan Richards
Firstly, How has the new album been received by your fan base? The album has been received incredibly well. To be honest, we thought it would be during the writing and recording - just because it sounds like classic Funeral. A lot of fans have told us that is the record they were hoping we would make, and it's definitely the record that we wanted to make so everyone's a winner.
So what are the main themes and inspirations behind your latest album 'Welcome Home Armageddon' ? Musically, we were really inspired to write a record full of songs that would be a lot of fun to play and would transcend to the live environment really well. For our last couple of records, it's been quite a challenge to introduce the newer songs to the live set without them sounding awkward or misplaced. I think we've definitely redressed the balance with this record.
How did your UK tour go with Rise To Remain? Great. We toured Europe with Bullet For My Valentine back last winter and shared a bus with Rise To Remain, who were opening. They're a great bunch of guys and extremely talented musicians, so we were really happy to have them out on tour with us again. We also had the incredible Tiger Please out on tour with us too, who we all know really well, so it was a great community on that tour.
This year you played a couple of shows in South Africa, how was this whole experience? It was genuinely one of the most amazing experiences I've had being in this band. It's hard to know what to expect sometimes when you're travelling somewhere brand new, but we were definitely blown away with the beauty of the country, the friendliness of the people and the quality of the shows and festivals there.It's definitely somewhere we'd love to return.
This year you also headlined the Pepsi Max stage at Download! How awesome was that? Great - we can now say we've been a headline band at Download! It could have been difficult going up against the main headliners, System of a Down, and a legend like Alice Cooper - but I think we definitely held our own.
There has been a lot more screaming from you on this album compared to the album prior, how has it been to have this factor feature much more in your live shows as well as on record? It's been great for me, as I enjoy contributing and performing vocals.To be honest, there's not really been much opportunity on the past 2 albums to do any of that type of vocal because the songs just haven't been heavy enough. This is probably the heaviest album we've ever written so it makes sense that it has the most aggressive vocal.
What can you tell us about your new single 'Broken Foundation' and how did you go about deciding that this will be your next single? We just wanted to put out a track that showed the intensity of our live show, and we filmed the video for the track at a headline show in Amsterdam on our European tour. It was never about getting radio play or chart positions - there's no way this track was ever going to get that.It's just about showing people where we're at.
The video accompanying the single is very impressive, how did you come up with the mosh pit style camera shooting? Just as I said earlier - we just wanted to show people a little about what our live show entails. I can honestly say that we're the best live that we've ever been, and we wanted people to see that.
What can you tell us about Gavin Burrough's solo material?
Go and have a listen http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gavin-Burrough/176673665705487?sk=app_178091127 It's just Gav and his guitar. Very honest, emotive songs - and very different from FFAF.
As a band that have waved the flag for the alternative music scene in the UK since 2002/2003, what do you think of the scene at the moment compared to when you first started? There's a lot of great bands out there at the moment really doing adventurous things, and that can only be good for the scene. I can certainly say that the quality of musicianship has improved since back then. I certainly hope that the spirit of community has been retained between these bands, and it looks like it has from the outside looking in.
How excited are you for your upcoming headline tour, and what should attending fans expect? This is the biggest UK headline tour that we've done in a while, so we're of course really excited about it. It really feels like the band are rejuvenated and on fire again, and these shows are the culmination of that. It should be a great time.
On facebook we are already seeing reports of new music being created, what can you tell us about your new material at this point? It's been nice because we haven't HAD to write yet, but we've really WANTED to write. The songs carry on from where the last album left off, but I think generally are even more extreme.We're actually in recording a new track as we speak, and it's sounding
7385
"We Are The In Crowd are building up a fantastic fan base in the USA and now they are about to explode in the UK! Why? Well first up we will have the release of their debut album "Best Intentions" and then in January they will be hitting the road with the massive "All Time Low" so please be warned as this band is about to take over!"
Interview with Tay Jardine
So you are about to put out your debut album ‘Best Intentions’ with this in mind what can fans expect from this album? It's very similar to our EP, but because there are more songs on the full length we were able to make it more dynamic. You'll hear anything from the fast pop-punk songs to slow ballads. We wanted there to be a song for everyone!
What are the main themes and influences that run through ‘Best Intentions’ ? Best Intentions is influenced by our personal lives. The five of us picked apart our brains. We talked about what was going on with us as a band and personally. Each song is based on something we've done or gone through.
What made you decide on that album title? Cameron (guitarist) came up with the title. He came up with the EP's title as well. Best Intentions is a term that we seem to live by. We do everything with the best intentions. Sometimes we fail, sometimes we succeed, but we put our all in to it.
The first single from the album is ‘Rumor Mill’ – what’s the story behind this song? Why did you choose it to lead the new record? 'Rumor Mill' means exactly what it says. A lot of times people portray differently than you'd like to. Sometimes people are cruel and step on your feet just make themselves look taller. The song is about staying you, and telling the other people to mind their own. The song is up tempo and energetic so we wanted to release it first. I think its a good representation of what the rest of the record sounds ike.
How did it feel to record a full album? Was it an entirely different process to recording your EP ‘Guaranteed to Disagree’? It feels great! I've never done it before, so its a big accomplishment. It was a little different than recording the EP because we had more time to do it, but other than that not much.
You played Slam Dunk, as well as some dates with Mayday Parade –how did you find playing in the UK for the first time? How does the crowd reaction differ to the US? Absolutely amazing. That was our first time in the UK and the fans made us feel like we've been playing there for years. I honestly think the crowds in the UK are more excited than some of the US crowds! It was a welcoming feeling.
You will be supporting All Time Low on their UK tour in January – how did this come about? Yes, and we are very excited! We're currently on tour with them now and we're having a blast. We got the offer and couldn't let it down!
How excited are you to return to the UK and play some bigger venues? I'm excited to come back to the UK in general! The bigger venues are just a plus.
There are few bands who could have experienced the success that We Are the In Crowd has experienced in such a short space of time – what do you attribute to this success? We are incredibly grateful to be in the position we are in. Since day one, the band has moved at a fast pace. I may blame it on our short attention spans haha. We always need to be moving and doing something. Sometimes it's difficult though. I find myself trying to catch up often, but I'd rather be that than not be busy.
Although you have an array of influences individually, as a band you often cite some major pop-punk bands and this is evident in your sound. Do you sometimes find yourself in awe of playing with some of your heroes? Absolutely! The tour we are on now, The Starting Line played the first few dates. We watched them every night and became friendly with them. As surreal as it feels at first though, you begin to realize how much a like everyone is and it becomes more of a relatable relationship than you think. It's really awesome.
It’s often criticised, but 2011 seems to have witnessed a massive revival of great poppunk music. What do you think of the pop-punk scene at the moment? I think it's stronger for sure! I'm stoked on it!
Interview with Luke Prebble
"Canterbury gave away their first album for free, and to some this may sound crazy, but for all of you upcoming bands you should probably do something like this, as the band got a tidy 40,000 downloads from doing so....since then the band have done some amazing tours with bands such as You Me At Six and with their new tune 'More Than Know' now unleashed upon the public, everyone is getting very excited for the bands 2nd album, so lets see how its coming along" Can you tell us a little bit about the formation of Canterbury? James, Scott and I went to school together. Mike played in another band and we recruited him into Canterbury when he came to sing some harmonies on a demo of ours. So we've been together as a group for about 5 years now.
How did you decide to release your first album for free? We had had it recorded in its entirety for a couple of years before we actually released it. During that time, we were looking for ways to release the record to as many people as possible. It came to light that giving it away for free would be the best way of doing that.
Looking back now, how would you say this idea has been received by your fans, and how has it worked with you as a band? It worked extremely positively. If we had our time again we would do exactly the same thing with our first release. And would encourage other young small bands to do the same. The fans received it with open arms and we had an enormous amount of positive feedback. To this date we have had about 40,000 downloads of the album around the world, which blows our minds. There are thousands of new bands out there who don't get near that amount of sales of a debut album. So we thank the fans for taking a hold.
So how is your new album coming along? Its coming along brilliantly. We are working with Peter Miles whom we did 'Thank you' with. We have a great relationship with him and we really like the results we get. As we speak in fact, I am in the studio listening to some strings being put onto a couple of the tracks. It's something we've never had the means to explore before, but it's a wonderful sounding addition.
Interview with Luke Prebble Are there any particular themes or subjects that you will be writing about on this album? There are a number of different themes addressed. We touch on the topic of wasting time, not making the most of what's offered to you, and on the flip side, the desire to be making memories and living to the full.
At this stage, how would you say your new music is sounding in comparison to your first album? it has developed a great deal. It's much more mature, deeper where it's deep, and prettier where it's pretty. We are very excited about getting it out the the masses!
Your first album received a lot of great feedback from fans and press, has this maybe added any pressure onto the recording process? I think if there is pressure for the record to perform, we will feel it more closer to the time of release. I think it would be a damaging thing if we were feeling pressure of public opinion whilst still holed up here in the studio. We are just going to make the best album we can, and if people like it, that's amazing.
So, how did you go about choosing "More Than Know" as the first single of your second album? It's one of the most 'rocking' songs on the album, and with it's high energy levels and excitement, we wanted to dish it out as the first taster for people. There will be plenty more on the way though!
Can you tell us a little bit about the video for this song? It was James who came up with the vision, and it was executed pretty much as he imagined. We wanted something that wasn't just a boring band performance shot. We wanted something to stick out a little bit from the norm, to get people thinking and perhaps a little bit scared! It was a lot of fun to film, and completely different from anything we've done up until then.
What was it like to tour with The Blackout, You Me At Six and Set Your Goals, any cool stories from the road? It was a huge tour to be on, and an honour. We made some great friends on that tour and we will remember playing those enormous rooms for a long time to come! I'm afraid one of the only 'stories' I remember from that tour is the fact that Mike and I spent about 5 days with a horrific D & V virus, which subsequently made it's way around the entire crew!
How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour with The Blackout and what should attending fans expect? Very excited indeed. We haven't been on the road since the tour last year with YMAS, so we are itching to get to that first date. The blackout are awesome guys too, so it will be a hell of a lot of fun. The fans can expect a rock show to sing along to and go mental to!
On a final note, what do you want this second album to do for the status of Canterbury? We want to see the world! That may be ambitious, but we like to aim high. If not the world then perhaps mainland Europe and a nice run of festivals next summer!
TRANSIT
Interview with Tim Landers
"Transit are about to unleash their new album "Listen & Forgive" and we are here to find out all about it! Also remember to catch these guys live when they tour with the fantastic Title Fight this December as this may be the last time you see Transit in such intimate venues!" So you've been named by Alternative Press as one of the bands to watch in 2011, so have titles like this added any pressure to recording or playing live? I mean- It’s a strange feeling. We’re always putting pressure on ourselves. We’re always trying to push the envelope and be the best band we can be. So any added pressure from outside sources is just fuel for the fire.
What's it like being on Rise Records? Have they been treating you well so far? It’s wonderful. They’re great people that run a great label. They let us do what we want and make the music we want.
You have toured with a lot of great bands (Man Overboard/Senses Fail), with this in mind do you feel that any tours or bands in particular have helped elevate the status of your band? Well I feel touring in general is the most effective means of growth as a band. We’ve spent a lot of our lives on the road in the past couple years and I think that every single tour played a part in our expansion.
Interview with Landers How would you say have progressed sinceTim "Keep This To Yourself" ? I would like to think so. As I mentioned before, we’re always striving forward for progression.
What can you tell us about your new album "Listen & Forgive" ? It’s kind of a really feel-good record, musically. All the songs were written and recorded this summer, and I think the season definitely had some sort of underlying reflection on the overall vibe of the songs. Lyrically, it’s not very uplifting at all.
“It was an emotional roller coaster. In the end, I wouldn’t have had it any other way” How was the recording process for this album? It was a grueling, yet rewarding process. We wrote and demoed over 20 songs for the record. We changed the location and timeframe for recording a couple times. We had a good time, we argued, we had a new member- it was an emotional roller coaster. In the end, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I’ve never been more proud to be part of something. We started writing in April. We tracked the record in the month of July, and a little bit of early august. We recorded at Maximum Sound Studio in Danvers, MA with Gary Cioffi on Production and Tommy Iannelo as Engineer.
You guys have been compared to a lot of different artists out there (Jimmy Eat World/Taking Back Sunday) in recent years, with this in mind, what artists would you say have maybe influenced you on this record or just in general and why? That’s always a really tough thing to put a finger on. We’re all into such different stuff, while loving a lot of the same simultaneously. We never TRY to write a song that sounds like Taking Back Sunday or something, things just come out naturally. If I had to say though, this record was probably most directly influenced by American Football, Jimmy Eat World, and Death Cab For Cutie. That’s just how I see it, though. You could get a different response from each of us.
You guys have done a lot of covers, with this in mind how do you go about deciding who you want to cover? Is there ever any disagreement within the band about certain covers? We just cover songs we want to cover, typically. If there’s an overabundance of a certain request, we try to keep our followers happy. I mean, half the reason we do the covers is to make the people who like us happy. Hell, they’re the reason we’re still a band. Like I mentioned, we’ve all got different tastes so we try to mix it up and have everyone throw ideas out there. There’s definitely disagreement- it comes with the territory.
What cover song would you say has been your favorite so far and why? Most of them were really fun. I really like the Archers of Loaf one, and the Goo Goo Dolls one because those are some of my favorite songs ever. I think the Piebald one with our brother Nik from Man O was the most fun. I don’t know man, I’m pretty content with all of them.
What can we expect to see from Transit in 2012? A whole lot of touring. We will be playing everywhere. Come hang out.
Interview with Laila K and Barney Boom
"Sonic Boom Six have had a great year, they've hit Sonisphere, they've toured with Less Than Jake and at the same time, they've even been working on a new album. Check them out live this October as the round the year of with a headline tour. Awesome!"
So how has this year been for you? Any highlights you would like to share with us? It's been one of our best years yet, we've been so busy. We did some great tours with Less Than Jake, Zebrahead, King Blues and festival season has been the best one so far. Highlight has to be Sonisphere. We headlined the Red Bull Stage on the final night and it went off! We didn't really know what to expect as we'd never played it before but it was awesome. Our main focus of the year, away from the limelight of the stage has been really taking our time to record and write our new album. The time we're taking to do it is a luxury we've never had before so it's really exciting to finally see the fans starting to hear and react to parts of it live. It won't be long now till everyone gets to hear it properly. We can't wait....
How did the tour go with The King Blues, any cool memories you'd like to share with us? It was great. To play to a crowd that isn't necessarily the hardcore punk or ska-punk crowd but you know must be plugged into music with a conscience and a message was a dream come true for us at this point. And those opportunities are few and far between so we relished every minute of it. It's amazing to see what The King Blues have achieved in terms of their fan base and the passion they stir up. It's really been a case of us being inspired by the way they've managed to balance having legitimacy and potency as a “band with a message� while being able to spread that message beyond the beaten track. It's funny because we took them out on one of their early tours back in 2007 so it was great to catch up on old times... we all just slotted back in. We're all good mates anyway so it was fun, especially because our mates Random Hand joined us too. The London gig was most memorable. Not only for the massive crowd at Koko's but for the fact that our laptop packed-in halfway during the set leaving us to finish with an impromptu set-list! I think it was cool because the crowd got to see something different, in many ways the punky Boom of old! Often when things go wrong and you pull it back together those shows are the most fun and rewarding and different. Judging by the feedback and the reviews, everyone was happy!
You guys hit a lot of festivals, with this in mind, how important do you think festivals like 2000 Trees, or Slam Dunk Festival are to the UK music scene? I think they're extremely important. I love the fact that festivals like that as well as Hevy, Guilfest, Green Belt, Wicker Man, Kendal Calling and Rebellion exist. And there are a whole load of others that are great too, sorry if I've missed you out but we'd be here all day! There are your big British festivals which are great, globally-influential festivals which we've had the honour of playing but they're very much geared towards getting on all your hot bands and the festival experience is not something that is factored in as much. Despite its best and most valiant efforts, Glastonbury has been co-opted by Joe Normal via the BBC coverage to the extent that it struggles to be at all counter-cultural any more. It's still the best in many ways but it's a real red circle on the Yuppie calendar. And it's all good, festivals are for everyone but smaller festivals have that traditional 'festival vibe' now for me. They make it possible for people to enjoy that 'festival vibe'; make it slightly more affordable and meet like minded people, and while they're doing that they can watch bands they wouldn't normally get to see. In that order! Smaller festivals make 'doing a good festival' the priority rather than having the coolest and hottest bands on above all else. You get to a point with the big ones where the festival isn't the priority any more and you get to a certain age where you'd rather be somewhere where you can get a decent pint, a plate of food for under ÂŁ8 and people aren't walking around giving out free hugs and then rioting and ODing in the corner of a ditch at night you know? I have no problem at all with the way that Glasto and Reading/Leeds treat smaller bands though, both festivals make great efforts to cultivate talent and have stages with new acts on and that's great. But what you see at festivals like Guilfest is a real focus on developing local acts on there and giving them a bigger stage, which really helps the local music scene and that's awesome. With the economy stretching everyone's purse strings, the smaller festivals seem to be picking up steam as a genuine alternative rather than an odd second-best curioso, which is kind of what festivals like Green Belt seemed like when I was a teenager.
In a kind of reference to the last question, how did your set go at this years Sonisphere Festival? It was great, we've done loads of festivals and I have to say at Sonisphere they treated us like royalty. We were lucky enough to be there on the Saturday too so got to hang out with some cool people like Bill Bailey. The set went really well too, we didn't know quite what to expect as it's predominantly a metal festival but the tent was packed, we had everyone singing along and we even got a wall of death at the end! We were asked so many times how we thought it was going to go but we never sweated it at all. A festival crowd is generally the easiest crowd. There was a lot of speculation about us being on there in such a prominent position online and we knew it was all going to be cool but when you've got illiterate moshers threatening to kill you on your Facebook wall you kind of take a second guess you know?! But it was amazing; there wasn't a single person in the tent standing still. It’s a funny thing how people's genre hang-ups come to the surface in situations like this where you'd expect people had really got over that kind of stuff what with the last decade of everything being a lot more mashed-up. There was a review where it said 'SB6 even got a circle-pit, which I'm willing to wager is a rarity at a Sonic Boom Six gig'. Like running in a circle is a skillset unique to kids in Limp Bizkit hoodies! What did he think we did at Boom gigs? Pogo and spit on each other?! The mind boggles. I honestly can't think of a single Boom gig in the last five years without one. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
What can you tell us about your record label Rebel Alliance Recordings? We set it up to release our second album 'Arcade Perfect'. We kept it going, releasing Random Hand's 'Inhale/Exhale', The Skints' debut album, Mouthwash's 'True Stories' album and our own 'City of Thieves' a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, we just don't have enough hours in the day to do what we do and run a label with a full working roster too so it's been scaled down to just releasing our own records. Running a label is something we'd love to do but simply couldn't manage it alongside everything else. Unfortunately, Mouthwash split up last month and they're a band that, if you haven't before, you must check out as they are one of the biggest inspirations on The Boom ever.
What can you tell us about the single "Sunny Side of the Street" ? Well, it's a different vibe than what we have recorded for the new album. We wrote it early on before we knew which direction we wanted to take the album in but then it was just sat there when we went in another direction and we liked it too much not release it. The amount of festivals this year made us think on and we realised that releasing 'Sunny Side of the Street' over the summer with a video would be perfect and so far it's not disappointed! The response has been great and it's a perfect summer-filler until the first single off the new album is out in October. I think that even though the song is a departure from the general Boom madness, people have been drawn to the lyrics in the song of having a positive mental attitude and looking on the bright side while acknowledging the dark side which have been staple themes across our musical output. The video came out great and has reached a good few music channels out there so it's been a step in a different direction for us but it's been very interesting overall!
How's the work on your new album coming along? Great! It’s been a labour of love and we’ve really taken our time to make the whole thing perfect and not be too pressurised by keeping ‘on the treadmill’ as we have with previous releases. There are a couple of vocal bits to finish off but the album's done and we can't wait till it's out next year. We've been playing a couple of songs off it live - mainly 'Virus', 'Karma is a Bitch' and 'For the Kids of the Multi-Culture' and they've all been going down better than any fresh material we’ve ever played live by a considerable extent. The best way to imagine it is listening to ‘New Style Rocka’ but that song was deliberately pitched first as a softball into the new material. We like to think of it as a half-way house between the old and the new. For any more than that, you'll just have to wait!
How would you say your new material is comparing to your material on "City of Thieves" ? Well sonically ‘City of Thieves’ was all about being five people in a rehearsal room playing an album’s worth of material live. Even though it encompassed different styles of music, the instrumentation generally, and consciously, stayed the same. The new album is the complete opposite of that. With the line-up changes we've taken the time to do things differently and take it in a more dance-production direction. We’ve written the whole thing directly on recording software… rather than sitting and jamming we’re putting riffs on loops and vocal ideas down. I wouldn’t call it a “studio record” necessarily because some of it was written live but it’s the complete opposite of the approach we took with ‘City of Thieves’. I think that with ‘City of Thieves’ we reacted to some of the criticisms that we faced on ‘Arcade Perfect’ that the album was a little too polished at times that it lost some of it’s vibrancy and decided to harness some of the madness we had on our first album ‘Ruff Guide’. To keep it fresh, we added another guitar and, reacting to the things we saw going downhill in terms of society, we made our heaviest album. It’s funny how the lyrics are generally so dark and yet the problems in UK society have got even worse over the last two years. ‘Back 2 Skool’ to me is particularly funny because the things we’re raging against in that in terms of the music scene’s focus on narcissism and a lack of willingness to address certain issues and that has just got worse and worse. Now, more than ever, we need bands willing to talk about what is happening out there in terms of everyone, from the bankers to the politicians and down to the kids looting, simply being so selfish. And instead the music scene is not only refusing to rebutt that selfishness, it’s become an explicit manifestation of it. We want to make that very clear with our new material we’re a light in the dark, we’re doing things differently, we’ve got to pick up the pieces and build together. Although some of the songs on ‘City of Thieves’ like ‘A Bright Cold Day’ and ‘Jericho’ are some of our greatest heavy moments I don’t think that’s what people want to hear from the Boom. Ironically, we were turning into a red-in-the-face, scream-about-how-rubbish everything is hardcore band ourselves! The people want us to be a dayglo cartoon going on about how great everything can be, the kids need us to be a bouncing multicultural beacon of all that is good and fun and take them away from all that impotent, hairstraightened rage that says ‘we’re all fucked and we’re doomed’. We’re not, we can build together. And that’s the spirit we’re coming back to be. But it’s going to be louder and better and more potent than ever before. We’re coming back to really shake things up.
Since you first started how would you say the ska/punk music scene has changed or stayed the same in the UK ? (We miss Farse!) We loved Farse! The ska-punk scene definitely dwindled in the mid noughties but we’ll always love it for spawning us. We adore that style of music and the fans that are with us from that scene are our lifeblood. I think the scene has shrunk from it’s heyday in the late 90s but there are still a whole host of great bands holding it down out and about. There’s been a resurgence in the last couple of years I think with bands doing something new and interesting with the genre once again. Tyrannosaurus Alan, Dirty Revolution, Tree House Riot, Breadchasers, Stand Out Riot, Anti-Vigilante, Detached, Miacca, Jeremiah Ferrari, Blag, Clay Pigeon, Gecko, Jimmy The Squirrel, The Junk, JB Conspiracy and Beat The Red Light all rule.
How excited are you for your UK tour in October and what can attending fans expect? It's strange to think but it's gonna be our first headline tour this year. We've been so busy with supports, writing and recording the album and festivals we've not had time to tour properly. Fans can expect a super Sonic Boom set list, full of old school and new bangers and a taster of some more of the new songs off the album. We've got our eye on a mega support act too which will be something new to a lot of people and we’re really stoked about introducing them to new eyes and ears. But we can't give too much away at the moment!
What will 2012 hold for the mighty Sonic Boom Six? We're gonna kick off the year with the next single and video off the album and then the album drops in February 2012, followed by a UK and European headline tour. We’re really itching to get out there and get back to being the best at what we do in the world.
Interview with Nate Derby
So, can you tell us a little bit about how you got together? A few years ago I started writing some pop-punk songs in my friend Kyle Chapman's basement, outside of Rochester, NY. Kyle helped develop drum parts for the songs, but took on vocal duties later on. We wrote a few songs, chose the name "Such Gold", but the band never came together. After spending a year at school in Toronto, Canada, I came home and and was asked to join Rochester melodic hardcore band Heavy Hearted, reuniting me with Devon Hubbard (bass), who I had played with in the past. Heavy Hearted disbanded at the end of 2008 - soon after the break-up I re-discovered the Such Gold demos, and Kyle and I got Tim Heald (original guitarist), Devon, and Devan Bentley (drums), on board to pursue the band more seriously. We re-wrote two of the original demos, and wrote a third song, all of which would eventually become our demo. A few practices in we realized Kyle wasn't going to work on vocals; Tim knew a vocalist, Ben Kotin, from when they played together in local hardcore band Blunt Force Trauma. Ben came to our practice space for a tryout, he sang a few lines on what would become "Four Superbowls, No Rings", and Saves The Day's "You Vandal", and after practice we pretty much decided right there that he would be perfect. Two years later Tim left the band and was replaced with Skylar Sarkis, who had also been in Blunt Force Trauma, but went on to sing for Boston band Building.
"If you love bands like Set Your Goals and Fireworks then we have no doubt that you will love Such Gold. The band are currently on tour with The Wonder Years and they also have a new album on the horizon for the start of next year! We for one are excited about this, and also we strongly advise you check out their EP 'Pedestals' its fantastic"
How did you get to the band name "Such Gold" ? To tell the truth the name was pretty much pulled out of thin air when the original demos were written. We were looking for a unique name that stood out. I thought a name with "Such" in the title would be cool, and Kyle really wanted the name to have "Gold" in it. We put the two together, the rest is history. The name has come to take on a special meaning to each of us, however, and fans are free to interpret it however they like.
For readers who may be unfamiliar with Such Gold, how would you describe your band's sound? Such Gold's sound encompasses a number of genres, including punk, hardcore, pop-punk, melodic hardcore and indie-punk. We typically consider ourselves to be a "melodic hardcore" band; I like to call Such Gold a "modern punk" band. Genre's aside, you should expect fast, driving songs with passionate vocals and intelligent lyrical content at the helm, backed with intricate guitar lines under heavy, high-gain guitar and bass tones, and technical, hard-hitting drums. Heavily influenced by bands like Saves The Day, Strike Anywhere, Set Your Goals, A Wilhelm Scream, Propagandhi, Hey Mercedes, The Progress, and Lifetime.
What can you tell us about your EP "Pedestals" ? Many of the lyrical themes in "Pedestals" revolve around coming-of-age, overcoming daily obstacles and tough life situations, and working to better one's self. The songs were a huge step for us in the direction we wanted the band to continue in, and fall somewhere between hardcore, pop-punk, and punk. We had a great time writing and recording "Pedestals" and it was awesome working with Greg Altman as our producer, and putting the record together with help from Joey Cahill (6131 Records).
So we have read that you guys are working on your debut album, how would you say your material is sounding in comparison to your EPs already released? Each time we release new material, it seems to stand out entirely on it's own when compared to earlier releases. "Stand Tall" is a much different record from "Pedestals", and the songs from our split with Into It. Over It. and upcoming split with A Loss For Words have their own unique style as well. Each release represents a different phase in our lives, and as musicians. On the new full-length we've honed our songwriting skills and put them to use - the new songs are chock full of chord structures, chord progressions, melodies and rhythmic ideas we've been eager to use to develop our sound, giving the songs an identity of their own, and the record a completely unique feel. There's songs that nod back to "Stand Tall", songs that could have been put alongside any of the material on "Pedestals" or the splits, and songs that deviate in style beyond anything we've written before. The record's not finished yet, but coming together well - we're very excited for everyone to hear it and start playing some more new songs live!
Not so long ago you got to play with the awesome The Starting Line, how awesome was this whole experience? Yes this was back in December - Such Gold, Hit The Lights, The Starting Line at the Starland Ballroom in Vineland, NJ. The show was amazing. A crowd of around 1800 were in attendance, the largest crowd we have ever played for to date. We played one of our tightest and best-sounding sets, and we had two guest vocalists come on stage - Kenny from TSL sang his parts on "So Close", while Jay from Reign Supreme did guest vocals for our cover of "You Vandal" by Saves The Day. It was a blast and a true honor to play alongside The Starting Line.
How did your UK tour go back in February, any cool memories you'd like to share? The UK tour was an amazing experience. We were already worn out from a few weeks of touring the world, but pressed on and spent a month touring the UK and Europe. Many of the shows were packed, the response from kids was incredible, we got to hang with our friends in Four Year Strong and The Wonder Years one night, made great friends with the guys in Starters, and experienced a huge portion of the UK, including great shows in Wales, Scotland, all over England, and two shows in Ireland. Personally, my favorite memories include visiting Hadrian's Wall, The London Eye, Stonehenge, Buckingham Palace, drinking Guinness in Dublin, and traveling the English countryside, packed into the narrow, high-top Transit van like sardines and listening to Henry Rollins' "Get In The Van" on audiobook.
How excited are you to be touring the UK with The Wonder Years? It should be an incredible tour! Unfortunately I have a prior engagement that is going to keep me home in New York for the duration of the tour, but our good friend Jon Strader from No Trigger will be filling in on guitar. It's an amazing opportunity to be invited back to the UK, with the Wonder Years no less.
What can we expect from Such Gold in 2012? Big things! We don't have much planned for 2012 yet but there are a few things in the works. We have the whole rest of 2011 pretty much booked up - the UK tour with TWY/Valencia starting early September, followed immediately by a US tour with Polar Bear Club, Fireworks, and Balance and Composure, quickly followed by a TBA tour down to the Fest 10 in Gainesville, FL finishing in the Northeast in November. Later in November we'll go into the studio and crank out the new full-length. We're currently submitting for December tours, the new full-length should be out late winter/early spring 2012, and then possibly another overseas tour in the early spring. A lot of stuff is up-in-the-air right now, so fans should keep an eye out for new announcements.
"Folk-punker Frank Turner embodies all that is good and right about British music. England Keep My Bones has been one of the best releases of 2011 and we can't wait to hear what he plans to do next."
Your latest album, England Keep My Bones, has been out for a few months now; how has it been received by your fans so far? Pretty great, I'd say. People have been singing the new songs back at me pretty loud at shows since the record was released, which is always my measure of how songs have gone over.
Stencil Mag last spoke with you after the release of Poetry of the Deed. How would you say your musical style has progressed since then? The main thing, for me, is that I've settled in to playing with my band, The Sleeping Souls, a lot more than on the last record. This time round everyone was much more confident in their roles within the music, and I felt more confident directing the arrangements. As a result I think the new album sounds a little more diverse, a little more complex, which is a good thing.
Can you tell us about the lead single, ‘Peggy Sang the Blues’? Peggy was my paternal grandmother, and a very free spirited, mischievous old lady when I knew her. She encouraged her grandchildren to be reckless and adventurous, and to disregard social convention, all of which are ideas I hold dear, and I guess that's what the song is about too.
In reference to the last question, what made you choose this song from England Keep My Bones, as the first new song you wanted fans to hear? Choice of singles is something I do in conjunction with the label (pretty much everything else to do with the record is jealously my call). Much discussion was had and that was picked as the best lead off song. "I Still Believe" was also out at the end of last year on the stop-gap "Rock & Roll" EP which I did.
You’ve said in previous interviews that this album is more of a solo record with a backing band, as opposed to a whole band effort; how did this effect the writing process for England Keep My Bones? Did you feel a greater pressure knowing that it was more of a solo-driven album? Actually it was more a question of feeling more in control this time round. The guys I play with are all great musicians, friends, and forceful personalities. I felt like I was better at directing them to do what I wanted this time round. I didn't feel masses of pressure for this record; I feel like I got all the nerves about expectation out of the way with "Poetry Of The Deed". There aren't too many chliches about what your fourth record is supposed to sound like, which was liberating.
It would be fair to say you’re a well educated man. Have you found your background a hindrance at all in the music industry? Very occasionally - though that's more to do with social status issues than pure education. There are, sadly, people in the world who are happy to condemn and despise me out of hand because of decisions my parents made about education. I have neither the will nor the energy to argue with those prats, but they do exist. It doesn't keep me up at night.
You have announced that a new song you’ve been playing live, called ‘Rod Stewart’, will now be released as a B-Side to the next single. Do you have any plans for a new album, this early after a release? The song has been retitled "Sailor's Boots" - Rod Stewart was a fun joke title but I didn't think I could actually use it for real, haha. I have a whole pile of new songs coming together, but there's no need for me to rush things so I'm taking my time, working on them and making sure they're good, and considering where to go next creatively as well - whether to do a vocals and guitar only record, or more stuff with the Sleeping Souls, or whatever. I've got time to think about it, tour schedule for the next record runs through til the middle of next year!
You’ve had an incredibly busy summer, with tours, festivals and travelling; how do you cope with the hectic life style? It's something I'm used to now. It also has to be said that I now travel with a great crew, we usually take buses, it's not quite as gruelling as it is when you're hopping trains or riding vans and sleeping on strangers' floors! I have a few more creature comforts now, which is nice.
Download festival has been known for not always accepting bands that aren’t too heavy. How did you find it this year? It was great. I was surprised and flattered to be asked to do the show, and the crowd were great. My billing was a touch incongruous, but then my background (Million Dead) is in heavier music and a lot of people know of me from back then, so it made sense.
How did it feel to be asked to play the main stage at Reading & Leeds this summer? Blown away. Reading is the festival I used to go to when I was growing up. It's a real career achievement for me, from my point of view.
You have a headlining tour coming up this November. When you started out, did you ever see yourself touring some of the biggest venues in the UK? Haha, no, at least not in any realistic sense - I might have lain awake at night and dreamed of it, but that's different from actually thinking it's going to happen. We also have Against Me opening the shows, who are a favourite band of mine, so that's also pretty crazy. I grateful for my fortune in life.
With all of your amazing achievements thus far, how do you plan to top what you have already accomplished? By trying to write better songs, by trying to push myself as a writer and an entertainer to always be doing new and worthwhile things.
”
Interview with Erik Chandler
"After releasing Fishin’ For Woos earlier this year, the eleventh addition to their full-length catalogue, Texan jokers Bowling For Soup have persisted with their goofy and fun-loving style of pop-punk to the delight of their loyal fan base"
How was Download Festival this year? You did one acoustic set and one electronic set right? Yes we did. It was great. We had one of the largest acoustic set crowds they've ever had. It's a good feeling to see the folks running the stage freak out because they don't think the PA is large enough for the crowd!
What can you tell us about your latest album 'Fishin' For Woos'? For this album we didn't allow ourselves time to over think things in the studio. We recorded the whole thing in 2 weeks. I personally think it's the best sounding album we've ever made. Simply because we went back to basics and just rocked it.
What's it like to have your first album out on your own record label? Has it been a lot of work in comparison to your previous releases? It's a really great feeling. I wouldn't say it's been more work, because we've always been very hands on. The biggest difference is that now we're signing the checks. We're very obsessed over every penny that goes out. It's a little insane to make a payment for the first pressing of your album...
“For this album we didn't allow
ourselves time to over think things in the studio. We recorded the whole thing in 2 weeks. I personally think it's the best sounding album we'v e ever made�
So we read that Bowling For Soup have stated the new album "feels very much like a 2002-2004 Bowling for Soup sound." is this the sound you wanted to go for when entering the studio? That is exactly why we didn't allow ourselves much time to record. We wanted to try to capture that sound and the best way we knew how to do it was to keep that kind of hectic recording schedule.
How would you say you have progressed as a band since your first album? The biggest difference is that our songwriting has come a long way. But for the most part we're pretty much the same guys. We just own houses and have families now.
What can you tell us about your split with The Dollyrots? How did this idea come up? The idea just came out of a conversation on tour. We then decided to use it as a promotional tool for our summer tour. It was really cool to try to reimagine a song by some of your closest friends.
How come you guys wanted to do a solo acoustic tour? Don't you guys miss each other when you are not on the road together? We definitely miss each others company when Jaret and I do the acoustic tours. The shows were something that we did just a few times a year in the states. We ended up getting a ton of response from our UK fans based on some leaked YouTube videos. We thought we'd give it a shot and the response to the first time out was overwhelming. I think it's a cool experience for the fans.
So we've read that you don't actually pen out a set list before a show? Has it always been like this, and how does this idea go down live? We wrote out a set list for one show long ago. Worst show we ever played. Then we vowed we would never use one again. It's a very organic process on stage. Every tour the set kind of works itself out. Then it gets to a point where you can kind of feel what song is next. But it also keeps us on our toes.
MIND MUSEUM So how did you guys get together?
Interview with Justin E Percival
When the band first started we didn’t have a drummer, so me and Will would usually work out a bunch of riffs and ideas from home. When we started jamming with Chas we would restructure these ideas together in the studio. As soon as we start to learn it, we can make changes and come up with a different structure, move the chorus around, make the verse a little longer - that kind of thing. Lately we really prefer getting the melody and music at the same time as hopefully a chunk of the word. Will and I were in a couple of bands together; I AM THE DOOR and Full Scream Ahead. When those bands ended we wanted to start something totally different and auditioned drummers. We found Chas after advertising in Bristol and Mind Museum was born in August 2010. The three of us then spent a few months hidden away in a rehearsal room hardening our sound and writing the ‘Rat Race’ EP
For an unfamiliar reader can you explain what you sound like? We're a three piece band. We play riff/melodic rock music - all the best bits of pop, all the best bits of rock then you have Mind Museum. We like to think our music is a bit different and has a unique sound that isn't really categorised under a set genre, something that’s a bit different to other bands out there at the minute. We’ve learnt to be true to ourselves; don’t try to conform to a genre, play what feels natural. Don’t take it for granted as it can always come crashing down around you when you least expect it. Enjoy it, don’t let any negative feelings build up and don’t ever let it become a chore. We mix quiet - Loud. Pop - heavy Rock. Urgent guitars - emotional wrought vocals and take influences from a wide range of artists from Biffy Clyro, The Police, Muse, The Cure, Rush, Circa Survive, U2. We really believe that readers of this magazine will like what we are doing musically and we love to meet new people! We have been a band for just a short time but we have a lot of exciting things happening and we want people to come along for the ride.
What can you tell us about your EP 'Rat Race' ? We recorded the EP with a guy called Kev Peters at Anemic Studios in Bristol and the video was shot by his brother Dan Peters. They’re nice guys and we always enjoy working with them. It’s always nerve wracking recording a new band though as you really get to find out if you suck or not ha. Thankfully we’re really happy with how it turned out and we seem to be getting some real positive press too.
On the record we wanted to showcase the different influences and styles ranging from punk, metal. People have said your EP sounds like Placebo, Lostprophets and Biffy Clyro, is this the sound you were aiming for when you went into the studio? Or are they just a big influence on your music? When we write our songs we just have a good time. We tend not to think about what or who we want to sound like and just let it be a natural progression. We do spend a lot of time on each song to make sure that everybody is happy with it. Our common ground is that we all listen to a lot of guitar music, heavy metal and pop songs. Basically anything that's kind of catchy whether it's heavy or light.
So what will we see from 'Mind Museum' in 2012? The main plan is to gig lots and try and get on some support/tour slots with other up and coming bands so we can let more people hear our music. We also plan to record another video and hoping this gets air play on TV along with a press campaign for our mini album ‘The Power of Three’ which will be out in the middle of September. Other than that, we are always writing new material and will carry on doing so in the hope that we will have a full length release sometime soon.
“We play riff/melodic rock music - all the best bits of pop, all the best bits of rock then you have Mind Museum.�
FEED THE RHINO
Man Overboard are a fantastic new band that have been touring the UK a lot recently, slowly but surely they are growing a hardcore fan base here in the UK, their set clearly shows this with die hard fans creating a mosh pit right at the front. The new tunes went down really well, but classics like Montrose really got the crowd singing along, I think this performance alone has firmly established their place in the UK rock world, and we for one cannot wait to see them again! In short Polar Bear Club are raw, fresh and just damn right impressive, their set brings in a brilliant crowd. So after Polar Bear Club we decide to wait for Capdown to hit the stage, to our surpise there didn't seem to be too many other people around, this slightly worried us as they are one of the greatest ska bands in the UK at the moment. Five minutes before we start to see their dedicated fan base turn up, and as soon as the first song came kicking in we see people running to try and catch the set. Sure maybe these people were watching other bands, but I think this factor alone establishes that Capdown are and never have been a band to miss. At a hardcore festival like Hevy Capdown still managed to find their place, the crowd were going wild and classic tunes like Ska Wars really did get an amazing crowd response. So after this we head over to check out Marmozets we were pretty excited to see this band as respectable sites such as punktastic.com have praised the band as ones to watch out for in 2011. This band were absolutely amazing live, although they are so young and new to the scene they weren't scared to show of their potential.
The energy the band had on stage was incredible and they all showed impressive talent on their chosen instruments. If they continue to perform live the way they did at Hevy we are sure that great times and tours are around the corner for these guys. Also check out the tune 'Lives' its outstanding. Zebrahead hit the main stage next blowing the crowd away with their ska punk anthems from start to finish, sure they've been doing some of the same tricks to get the crowd going since last year, but it works! Although we didn't really get what the Tiger part was all about everyone seemed to have an amazing time, I don't think you will ever see a Zebrahead show where people are not having fun though. Sadly the crowd didn't stay too energetic for We Are The Ocean which kind of surprised us. There has been a lot of talk about this band but for some reason the majority of the crowd stayed static. Don't get me the wrong the band played a fantastic set, but something wasn't quite right. Saying this the lead singer still managed to crowd surf from the sound desk to the stage in an attempt to get the crowd moving, so in short yes this was a great set to watch, but I don't think the band will remember it as a landmark in their history as a band. In an earlier issue of Stencil Mag Matt Davies stated that 2011 would be the year of the FFAF, and in short he wasn't wrong, the band have done some fantastic tours, they've even headlined a stage at Download so yeah expectations for the bands set tonight were pretty high! As soon as the band hit the stage these expectations were met with ease, new songs like 'Broken Foundation' and 'Damned if you do, dead if you don't' got the crowd going absolutely crazy and showed that the future for the band is looking extremely bright! Older tunes like 'Roses For The Dead' and 'Streetcar' also got a fantastic response from the crowd with crowd surfers left right and center. Last but not least we have the headliners Four Year Strong taking to the stage, although the sound wasn't quite right at the start of the set, things quickly got sorted! Also although the band were suffering from jet lag on the night they still put as much effort into their music as they normally would for any of their other shows, and in short they did not let any of their fans down. This was the first time we've seen the band without the keyboard player Josh Lyford and although at times it did feel weird without those keyboard parts Four Year Strong managed to prove to us that they can still rock just as hard with one less member. The set was crammed with singalongs from the start to the finish, and that was enough to satisfy us. Bring on the new album we say! So in a nutshell Hevy Fest was EPIC, we just hope that in a years time the festival will be twice as big as it is now, as it really deserves a lot more attention! So if you are reading this and you havn't been, get involved next year we say, as you will not regret it, and we don't even know who's playing yet....
THE GHOST OF A THOUSAND
ARCHITECTS
CAPDOWN
STENCIL MAG CAPTURES LIVE: MERTHYR ROCK FESTIVAL PHOTO CREDIT :
DOMINIC MEASON
"System of hope to rai people like so far it loo
Interview with James Woods
So can you tell us a little bit about the formation of this clothing project? I mean your not the average clothing label right, as a portion of your profits go to charity? Absolutely! Starting my own clothing label had been on my mind for a couple of years and as I progressed and started finding new music and political driven artists such as Sonic Boom Six, The King Blues, Enter Shikari & Get Cape Wear Cape Fly I started learning about the world, it's issues and getting a lot more aware. When I came to begin the project I looked at many options and made the decision to go all out Ethical and put extra money and effort in to make it happen. It's definitely more than just a clothing label, we do donate a percentage of profits from each item to a relevant charity/organisation and we have our blog where we blog what we think needs blogging about covering a wide range of issues from war to climate change along with various other projects such as our first short film Dis:information. (http://www.disinformationfilm.co.uk)
How did you get to the name 'System of Thinking'? I was literally online one night browsing the internet, thinking of idea & plans and thinking what I wanted to achieve and ultimately I wanted to make people think for themselves and not take others words for gospel, I wanted to talk about issues that needed to be addressed and create designs around them but I no way wanted to force beliefs and opinions upon people so I just grabbed a thesaurus and started putting together the name out of what I wanted to achieve.
f Thinking is not your average T-shirt design company, they ise important political points with their designs, and with e Rou Reynolds already paying attention to what they've done oks like these guys are certainly doing something right!"
You print your designs on to 'Organic Ethical Low Carbon Apparel' as well! How did you come up with this idea? Also is it any different to your everyday t-shirt? Indeed we use the 'Earth Positive' range by Continental Apparel. I'm not going to tell any fibs they are seriously very comfortable shirts, arguably the most comfortable. When setting up I was looking for the perfect apparel to work for our beliefs after a little googling I came across this supplier and thought they would be perfect. An earth positive t-shirt is very different to your everyday shirt‌ they are made using 100% organic cotton, manufactured solely using renewable energy from wind & solar power and the people who make them are well looked after and paid a good wage as approved & monitored by The Soil Association, The Carbon Trust and The Fair Wear Foundation.
So, what global issues have affected you and your project so far? We started the project around just after Japan was effected massively by the Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear incident, the world has so many issues a few that have touched me and I have talked about them on twitter and our blog to our followers are events such as when Greece stopped the Flotilla that was Gaza bound full of aid and nothing more, Issues raised in the documentary 'Countdown to Zero', The East African Famine & The trouble in Syria.
How has the response been so far for your new 'Anti-Riot' themed design? It's been used on other websites right? It's been amazing, myself and Joe got our heads together during the riots as they spread across the UK we had both been following the situation and I had been up till 3am each night tweeting keeping involved and spreading good messages and helped get the word out on #RiotCleanUp so we came up with this poster of solidarity design that we just put out on the Tuesday evening to promote peace amongst the people and the right attitude over the recovery period. The Riot Clean Up website put the poster up on their website (Started by Sam from Get Cape Wear Cape fly and some friends) and it's been shared around the net and with any luck it'll go even further, it's great to see it being used and that's why we put it out… for positivity!
How long does it take you to start and finish a design for a t-shirt? It really depends on what we are going for and the techniques Joe decides he wants to use but usually a couple of days we start with bouncing ideas and choosing a topic then Joe will sketch his ideas and we will choose one to define and develop in to a full design!
What can you tell us about your 'Hope & Unity' design? When the Earthquake triggered in Japan followed by a huge Tsunami leading to a potential nuclear meltdown at the Fukishama power plant, I was in the early stages of building System of Thinking for a summer launch. Japan is an amazing country, it was so shocking to see that level of destruction and it wiping out lives, communities and spirit in minutes I spoke to Joe from Look Happy who I work closely with to create the designs and he helped bring the project forward and designed a solid design that would just represent our support for Japan, we bounced ideas off each other and the Hope & Unity shirt was born. We donate £1.50 of profits of the Hope & Unity to the British Red Cross for their continued efforts to restore communities and help survivors. I just felt I needed to help!
How did Rou Reynolds from Enter Shikari end up wearing one of your tops, and how rewarding has this been for you? I started speaking to Rou via e-mail just as I was setting up System of Thinking back in early April talking about various things and ideas including his clothing label Step Up that launched shortly after. One evening in May I got an order through from him for the Hope & Unity shirt, that was pretty awesome. I went down to London in June when Shikari played Camden and we met for a chat and then they went off to the USA and a couple of days later we got a couple of tweets saying he had been wearing the shirt on the second date of the tour (Houston) and that followed with about 9 other dates throughout the tour! It was very rewarding in the way that we were supported by an amazing UK band that have the same beliefs, influenced me as a person as well as the project massively. Being represented that way on a legendary tour in the USA was also amazing and seeing all the pictures and videos when you searched 'Enter Shikari' on Tumblr was surreal too.
How have companies like Stand Your Ground Media and Global Cool helped you so far? Stand Your Ground media are great guys they have similar beliefs to us and they are so supportive of us, I met Alex Harman one of the Co-owners at the Enter Shikari show in Camden in June after being introduced by Matt Fleming from Decode Film we got chatting, kept in touch and are looking to work with each other in the future. Global Cool are a great site for finding ways to live your life greener without massive changes, we are donating some of our profits from our climate change themed shirts to their climate change foundation they have also been very supportive and we have a lot planned with them in the future.
What does 2012 hold for System of Thinking? So much! We have a busy three months left of 2011. Hopefully more products in 2012, plenty more blogs, more films, maybe we will get even more ethical and green, if that's possible… We also have our massive one year birthday in April so something big should be happening for that, I'm already starting to gather some ideas and thinking about it!
VIDEO FROM SHOWS Interview with Anthony Sykes When did you decide that filming bands live is something you really wanted to do with your time? It's not really something I do with my time as such, I don't go to shows just to film bands, I film bands at shows just because I'm there anyway. As of yet I haven't been to a show that I wasn't interested in or going to anyway with the sole intention of filming. I don't really dedicate a whole bunch of time to this, I just film and then upload the videos usually overnight to YouTube and post them on Tumblr in the morning. But either way I started filming in November 2010, the first show I filmed was November Coming Fire's reunion at the Old Blue Last.
Does it ever frustrate you when you see people posting live videos from their phone on YouTube, I mean most of the time you can barely hear anything at all! Yeah that really sucks, it's mainly people with iPhones, the sound quality is appalling! As soon as the drummer hits a cymbal or a guitar amp is too loud it's game over. The worst part for me is though people zooming in, it kills me when I see that, it looks awful! I always avoid zooming in unless there's something super important going on.
How fun was Hevy this year? Was there any bands you regretted not filming? Yeah Hevy was great fun! I managed to get some pretty good footage without any bother so that's always a bonus. I really really regret not being able to watch/film Defeater, but I was too busy and lost track of time and missed all but the last song. The videos from Hevy fest have been some of the most watched I've done so far, BWP is over 3000 views now and Ceremony and Touche Amore are both over 2000 and considering it was only a week ago at the time of writing this that's pretty impressive!
You also hit Sonisphere, how was this whole experience? I was only at Sonishphere for the Saturday night and the Sunday but yeah it was cool. It was a bit disorganised, but that works to my advantage as I usually don't have the correct pass or whatever to get on to the stage. I was lucky to be able to film the Four Year Strong set, I managed to get on the stage and just duck down out of everyones way with a bit of help from a friend.
You also shot Four Year Strong in Kingston, with this in mind is it harder to shoot a band in an intimate venue as opposed to a big stage? Yeah that was a real pain the ass to film, The Fighting Cocks is tiny and if you don't manage to get a spot on the one vantage point in the venue then it's pretty much pointless filming. Saying that I filmed it anyway and it came out ok, just mad shaky!
Interview with Anthony Sykes You've done a couple of videos abroad in Belgium (Rock Herk) How was this experience? Yeah Rock Herk was great, I drove More Than Life there so luckily this time I did have the correct pass and was able to do some decent videos. The best thing about that festival is it's free, we don't have anything as cool as that in the UK! Also they treat you so well on the mainland.
So, What is it you love so much about filming your favorite artists? I'm not sure really, I guess one of the main reasons is I used to look around the room when watching a band and think like "wow, this show is wild and no one is filming it!" I think that's why I got a camera in the first place, as lame as it sounds capturing the moment and sharing it is just something that appeals to me, I guess it's the same as a photographer. That and as weird as this sounds I often get bored when watching bands so this gives me something to do! I always think it's just as important to film the smaller bands who don't have any videos online of them playing than it is with a huge bands that hundreds of videos online already. Another aspect of filming I like is venue and band promotion. We're quite lucky in the UK for venues, and obviously if people see good shows at venues they are more likely to check out a show there in the future, therefore keeping the venue in business. The hardcore scene has lost too many venues over the years and it's a real shame.
Would you be interested in doing more videos abroad? Yeah definitely, i'd love to do more european festivals like Fluff Fest, Ieper Fest etc, maybe next summer!
Can you tell us a little bit about the equipment you use? I don't want to come across as some sort of secretive bastard but I'd honestly rather not say. It's only a very very basic setup that cost me practically nothing at all, but yeah at the moment it works pretty well.
Your YouTube channel has recently hit 100,000 views, how does this feel? Yeah it's pretty cool, I wasn't really paying attention to the view count and then I noticed I was nearly 100,000 and thought "wow that's pretty cool", but my aim now is half a million and then obviously a million would be amazing. I heard of a guy the other day that hit a million views on one video and didn't even get like a notification or anything from YouTube, so that's a bit of a bummer but alas i'll still work towards it. The Monday after Hevy fest my videos had over 10,000 plays and I generally get at least a 1000 a day on any given day so hopefully it won't be too long!
What gigs have stood out the most for you and why? (Which ones have you really enjoyed recording the most) Filming wise, I really enjoyed Trash Talk at Download, just because it was such a wild show, everywhere I looked something was happening, but luckily I had a pretty awesome view. I think the moment when Lee jumped from the stage to the front barrier over the security guy's heads was when I was like "well, this is going to kick off". I also really dig the way the sound came out in that video, it sounds hard as nails. Other than that I really enjoyed Defeater at The Underworld in February this year, just because the crowd singing is so loud, the view is decent and those guys play with such passion it's incredible to watch. The other show that sticks in my mind was the Throat's last show, which was incredible for obvious reasons.
So what can we expect from you in 2012? A whole bunch, more shows, hopefully from better vantage points and I definitely do need to look into getting a new camera at some point. When I do get a new camera i'll be looking into doing more editing and that rather than just straight uploading.
By Nick Armour
For a number of years, Nelson Street in Bristol has been looking a bit drab and run down, up until the day that Bristol City Council director, Mark Bennett, teamed up with Banksy and Inkie, combined with some of the most talented international graffiti artists I have ever seen, to create Europe's biggest piece of street art. The £80,000 project "See No Evil" has taken around a year to develop and finalise, hoping to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.
“The first piece of art that went up, was created by a Spanish artist, Aryz. Appearing to be a human figure, breaking out of his tied up shoe laces, sporting a bow tie and a dog mask. It stands an colossal five stories high! Looking at this piece, it is really hard to believe that he used a brush on a stick to create this.”
“Many more incredible pieces were accomplished over the course of the weekend, including a real life portrait of a mother and child, gangster pandas and the three wise monkeys silenced by money”
My favourite piece of the whole street has to be of a hooded rapper figure literally losing his entire set of teeth. I admire the shear effort and commitment that went into this piece. A shocking but heartfelt reminder of peoples dreams, visions and determination. Over the duration of the weekend, the street was filled with graffiti enthusiasts, live music, clothes stalls and even child graffiti classes for any young inspired kids to have a go. It was really uplifting to see the amount of people coming from far and wide to appreciate all the artists work. Congratulations to all artists for making "See No Evil" a great success. Nick Armour
The Horrible Crowes - Elsie With most “side-projects” its inevitable that The Horrible Crowes' Brian Fallon is always going to be compared to his Gaslight Anthem work in some form or another. In The Gaslight Anthem, Fallon has established himself as a charismatic frontman and acclaimed songwriter but with The Horrible Crowes, Fallon along with Gaslight Anthem guitar tech and longtime friend, Ian Perkins, his pristine songwriting is taken to another level as “Elsie” is a poignant collection of soul-influenced songs. Self-described as “night-time record,” the duo soothly set the tone for the record with “Last Rites;” a dark and sombre intro that allows Fallon's words wilfully stand out. As he sings “My baby just ain’t no good," your expectation for this record grows. Thankfully “Sugar” delivers on this and follows on nearly perfectly, as it takes on a tone that wallows and slowly broods underneath with light guitar strums and dark, airy percussion. It really is a marvel to hear. “Behold the Hurricane” is a more lively number and is possibly the most Gaslight Anthem-like track on here with an all-round fuller sound and upbeat tempo. Whilst tracks like “Go Tell Everybody” and “Mary Ann” do provide more soulful rock n roll moments; the latter is a stuttering and stomping number with passionate vocals from Fallon. Although “Elsie” goes back and forth between soft moments like the drifting “Cherry Blossoms” and thicker songs like “Crush,” it still manages to flow perfectly with each song being delicately looked after and perfectly crafted to the point where you can't hardly pick a fault. Throughout the duo's lyrical weight leaves you stunned, as tracks like “Black Betty & the Moon” and “Ladykiller” draw you in and gently holds you with valuable momentum from start to finish. When this is combined with the stripped and pristine musical approach The Horrible Crowes have taken, you're left with a perfect record, and to top it off the breathtaking “I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together” closes the record and sums “Elsie” ideally; a humble, compassionate and sombre collection of neatly-crafted songs. It's credit to Fallon and Perkins for being true to themselves and giving their all to “Elsie,” not letting any gimmicks, influences or any other distractions affect them, thus allowing “Elise” to come off as a unique and marvellous record that needs to be heard, whether its day or night. SR Kids In Glass Houses – In Gold Blood It’s pretty much common knowledge that Cardiff quintet Kids In Glass Houses are the coolest band on the block. The band themselves even stated at this year’s Sonisphere festival that they’re probably “the gayest band on the bill”. However, with third full-length offering ‘In Gold Blood’ they are a little bit cooler than they’ve been before, offering to the masses an album that delivers a little more bite and crunch than we’ve seen before from the Welsh boyos. Whilst the hooks are undeniably still ever present, such as second single ‘Animals’ certainly proves, but everything just sounds a little more ballsy than it has before, and thankfully it’s a good thing. Aled Philips seems to have a bit more gruff and fire in his voice, which not only displays a level of improvement in his voice, but also adds a layer of sincerity and conviction too. The rest of the members also show a level of maturity, particularly within guitarists Joel Fisher and Iain Mahanty, contributing some of the band’s best riff work to date. Sure, they’re still probably one of the least coolest bands on the block, at least when shoved on the lineup of festivals such as Sonisphere, but ‘In Gold Blood’ proves that they’re maturing in their own skin, and that’s the best you can hope for from any band really. ZR
Trivium - In Waves This one is close to my heart, after not only attending a Guitar Clinic with Matthew Heafy (lead singer) but also finding out that he owns a French Bulldog called Miyuki! Trivium is a heavy metal band from Orlando, Florida formed in 1999, now comprising Matt Heafy (lead singer and guitarist), Corey Beaulieu (vocals and lead guitar), Paolo Gregoletto (vocals and bass), and Nick Augusto (drums). Trivium's musical style has evolved over the years with the heavy influence of Metallica, In Flames, Machinehead and Iron Maiden (with whom they recently toured). This album, In Waves, is their fifth offering, and their fourth with Roadrunner Records. It is clear why the single "In Waves" was chosen to be their title track boasting strong variation in vocal presentation by Matt Heafy, with equally powerful guitar riffs; a prospective anthem for this musical genre. Subsquent tracks illustrate Matt Heafy's vocal range and versatility: note the difference between the qualities of his voice in Chaos Reigns and Of All These Yesterdays. Their musical influences are also apparent in many of these tracks particularly the guitar style in Of All These Yesterdays which to me echoes Metallica's well known hit "One". To the well informed Trivium fan, this album is an evolution of Shogun (their fourth album), and encorporates the best elements of Ember to Inferno (their debut album), Ascendancy (their second, and probably most wellknown album) and The Crusade (their third album). If metal is your thing, give this one a go, if not you have to love Matt Heafy anyway, because he IS The nicest man in metal! C.M
Trails – Trails EP They may come with a fairly bog standard band name, but with their debut self-titled EP release, Trails also come with a bit of a punch too. Kind of like those kids that get bullied, but eventually unleash all hell, or just YouTube ‘Casey Heynes’ and you’ll get the picture. The quartet bring a somewhat alt rock vibe with slight hints of The Libertines, though hopefully no one in Trails is quite as moronic as Pete Doherty. With an audio sample of some rally regarding the economic status of today, opening track ‘All The Other Humans’ brings the attitude in from the get go, tinkering in a build-up of all of the band’s instruments before Sam’s snarls come into play. Chorus line “My lungs are black / Tonight is the night / I don’t give a fuck / I just want to get fucked” is one that sticks around much longer than you’d expect, like unwelcomed body gas. ‘One In Three (Shotgun Not Me)’ is easily the most impressive track on here instrumentally, barraging right away with a frantic guitar line that keeps you on your toes for the remaining few minutes. ‘Social Constructionists’ is the most solemn number on offer, which shows a bit of a change of pace. Clocking in at almost six-minutes long, it brings an chance to sit back and hold tight before being put back on seats edge for the climactic and chaotic closer, ‘I Am Alive And You Are Dead’. ZR
The Lion and the Wolf - The Lion and the Wolf EP Southampton native Thomas George is riding the wave of British acoustic pop-folk music, attempting to imitate the likes of Frank Turner fused with Mumford & Sons, resulting in a quaint and likable affair. Under the alias of the Lion and the Wolf, this isn’t the type of singer-song-writer you’d find getting through to the Xfactor, which is exactly why you can expect him to garner support with the altrock community. His debut EP is rough-around-the-edges, but shows real potential and promise. The title track is a heart-rending, slow-moving ballad equipped with all the expected trimmings; tambourine, acoustic chords, soft keys and soothing vocals. A somewhat safe opener is followed by a more bouncy track, ‘I, the war horse’ that, with uplifting organ, swooning strings and morose lyrics seems to offer Britain’s answer to the American imports on the Revival Tour bill. Meanwhile, ‘This town needs heroes’ witnesses a different vocal style with a more nasally Good Charlotte-sound that should be avoided if TLATW is to keep his limey appeal. ‘And the ship sails on’ is a tad drab and monotonous and befitted with an underlying riff that hints at a little borrowing from Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’, but this can be forgiven after listening to ‘A song for the drunk and downhearted’ – the song’s title offering all the description required and George capturing the mood perfectly. The Lion and the Wolf has a big heart and the youthful tales of love and loss, whilst presenting little originality, are nonetheless well executed. If TLATW can build upon the refreshing ‘I, the war horse’ then bigger and better things might just be around the corner. RM
The Satellite Year – Mission: PollarLights It is rare that pop-punk bands outside of the US, Canada or the UK make any sort of impact on listeners from these countries – after all, they certainly have enough of their own to keep them busy. German exports The Satellite Year certainly justify the attention they’ve gained from further afield, with anthem after anthem of energetic and upbeat pop-rock assault. Contrary to their claims of “attain[ing] a new and individual level between Pop, Electro and Melodic Post Punk,” don’t be fooled by the bull-shit – this is standard pop-punk. But what’s so bad about that? The opening instrumental track moves seamlessly into ‘Because This Ain’t Vegas’, which sounds nothing short of massive. Outter-space Angels & Airwave-esque keys beep and bop over soaring chords and pounding drums, with the classic all-American style vocals (despite being German) that suit the genre to a T. ‘Girls Go Movie’, ‘Scene Scene Scenery (We Are So Perfect)’and ‘Yeah, the Ocean!’ are all almost identical to anything from the late Sing It Loud, a short-lived but very endearing American pop-punk band. Much like Sing It Loud, the sugary and clichéd vocal style, laid on top of the formulaic instrumentals will drive some to tear their hair out; but as with a lot of bands in the vein, their upbeat melodies are more contagious than STDs at a festival. If bands like All Time Low and Simple Plan induce murderous rage at the site of their skinny jeans and straightened hair then steer well clear of The Satellite Year. But if the thought of six grown men whining about their most recent relationship disaster under the guise of power chords and synths gets you going, then Mission: PollarLights will certainly do the trick. RM
Call Off The Search - What Doesn't Kill Us Kent based Call Off The Search are joining droves of British bands in the punkrock revival, with a sound that will satisfy any with the orientation, but offering nothing new to those that complain of the uniformity of the genre. Break-downs a’plenty, chugging guitars, emotional lyrical cries – Four Year Strong, you ask? No, just another band trying to imitate them. Regardless, What Doesn’t Kill Us is a fun, upbeat and solid EP from start to finish. ‘Train Yourself To Drive In Colour’ kicks-off in classic pop-punk style with Americanised vocals mashed with back-breaking beats and uplifting riffs – perfect for a summer day, but with less longevity than an IKEA flat-pack. Meanwhile, ‘One Way Ticket’ provides the highlight, with awesome and well-placed backing vocals, and all the clout of a Fall Out Boy Take This To Your Grave-era track – high praise indeed. Self recorded and produced, all credit must be handed to these young musicians who obviously have a great deal of talent - all the tracks possessing a hard-hitting and powerful sound that is faultless on a debut EP. Me Vs. Hero, Octane OK, Kids Can’t Fly, Save Your Breath, the list of British bands doing almost the same thing goes on and on. So go on, why not add one more to the pile? RM
Every Avenue – Bad Habits Album number four for Michigan's Every Avenue, and for those who have become tired with the cliché pitfalls similar US pop-rock acts; Mayday Parade, The Maine, We The Kings and so forth will be surprised with this latest effort from the quintet as 'Bad Habits' proves to be stellar collection of driving poprock. From the opening moments, 'Tie Me Down' showcases the bands valuable strong guitar work, courtesy of Joshua Withenshaw and Jimmie Deeghan, and appreciative vocals from Dave Strauchman. Whereas moments like 'Whatever Happened To You' and 'No One But You' show their ability to somewhat abandon their pop sensibilities, and opt for a thicker, rockier sound. For those who have become tired with the bands somewhat predictable style, this change is much welcome. In addition, the stomping 'Hit Me Where It Hurts The Most' easily wins over and shows this band has attitude Nevertheless the band still deliver radio-friendly numbers in abundance. 'Fall Apart' is a neatly-produced anthem that is so well structured, it needs to be given attention. Whilst on the surface 'Only Place I Call Home' may sound like your typical power ballad, Strauchman beautifully takes charge whilst layered guitars and sensibly placed strings add to the overall affect. Unfortunately 'I Can’t Not Love You' does not have the same affect, as it all a bit too sweet and sickly; sombre pianos and strings compliments Strauchman's heartbreaking words but the slow pace kills off the strong momentum 'Bad Habits' had. Though 'Bad Habits' doesn't see Every Avenue abandon their original style as a whole, there are still moments of progression and promise, as they work towards becoming a well-rounded rock band. Tracks like 'Watch The World' and 'Whatever Happened To You' show there is a refined, mature straight-up rock band underneath their teenage-pleasing pop-rock exterior. SR
Developer. Square Enix &Eidos Platform(s). PCWindows, PS3, 360 UK Release date: out now RATED: 15
Human Revolution Some series we have come to expect a new instalment every other year… or worse EVERY year. Unlike many other series ‘cash cows’ Deus Ex has had quite an erratic history, with the first game seeing huge success in 2000 and the not so loved Invisible Wars receiving mixed reviews in 2003. As a fan of the series, I have been waiting to play Human Revolution since its early press releases; I would love to think it will re-capture some of the magic of its predecessors backed up with next-gen technology; it could be something really special. To begin with, the story seems surprisingly straight forward, ‘seems’ being the key word. Set 25 years before the first game, we take the role of Sarif Industry’s private security officer Adam Jensen, whom after Sarif laboratories is broken into, equipment destroyed and scientists murdered is left a broken almost dead shell of a man. Luckily for Jensen this is the future and Sarif Industries as one of the world’s leading augmentation companies (cybernetic upgrades to none geeks), so turning him from a normal man into a semi robotic killing machine is just another day at the lab. With Jensen back on his feet we set about trying to find out who broke into Sarif, what did they want? and where are they!? Oh yeah, and did I forget to mention one of the scientists missing in the attack is Megan Reed, Jensen’s ex girl friend… so its personal! This outlines the core narrative in Human Revolution but as I said ‘seems’ is the key word. Like all good RPGs we are encouraged to explore. Deus Ex does this to great effect in using exploration not just to develop character stats but to expand the story. Quite simply you choose the level of detail you want from the narrative; from side quests, to reading every Email on computers, the game has huge scope.
So what is this world like that we have to explore? Many people of a certain age will be unable to play Dues Ex Human Revolution without thinking ‘isn’t this Blade Runner?’ for it does bare some striking similarities to the 1982 blockbuster. Not that this is any bad thing, sure it’s the future but there are still many existing technologies: I was happy to not see any flying cars or aliens. It is firmly in the realms of a believable dystopian future and one I quickly fell in love with, walking through dank back allies and hearing discussions between citizens, gang members, police etc… the cities feel organic and lived in, making exploring them all the more enjoyable. However much work as gone into story, environment and character design, the game would suck without decent combat… thankfully it is pretty good, now I understand that it might not be to everyone’s taste. Predominantly Deus Ex is a stealth game, where to stand any chance of success the sneaky sneaky approach is best. However this can be changed through the way you augment your character. XP works in Deus Ex in a less traditional way to most RPGs, once you get enough XP you get awarded 1 Praxis Kit you can also buy them at certain points in the game. Praxis kits allow you to upgrade aspects of your body to perform at a higher level. For example: upgrade your legs to run faster, jump higher, move silently. Or upgrade your lungs to make you immune to gasses… Hacking is a great investment, as you get awarded XP for doing it, trust me you will do a lot! So augmentations don’t just make up a majority of the story, they offer a great levelling system. The way in which you upgrade your character impacts your approach to combat, in my case I wanted to get through quickly… so an upgraded cloaking device meant I could run through rooms un-noticed, perfect when faced with a room of heavily armed guards and robots. If you do wish to get into a fire-fight, combat is pretty responsive and fun, just remember to use cover and never underestimate how quickly you will die if caught in the open. My advice: hide behind cover then sneak up behind them and take them out none lethal for max XP. Like I said before, the game is full of side quests and hidden items. Deus Ex rewards exploration perfectly, they really have upheld the notion of ‘freedom of choice’ - if you want to do everything and have an insanely tough Jensen then good for you, if you want to get a cloaking device and run around like a ninja that’s cool too. Boss battles are nothing spectacular, they are one of the few points in the game where you will not be given any choice in what you do - its kill or be killed. By now you would’ve gathered that I really enjoyed this game; there were unfortunately a few aspects that had me groaning. Deus Ex is littered with extensive voice acting that at times can feel robotic and worse lack any emotional continuity. You will wind a character up one minute, then they’ll go back into their narrative spiel calm and collected. It just didn’t make sense at times. This may be a personal thing but I fear Adam Jensen sounds like he is trying to do the Christian Bale Batman voice… it sounds ridiculous. Visually the game is divine, the repeated use of the orange tinge was a beautiful artistic decision. I did at times find myself walking around cities just looking at the architecture in awe. While Deus Ex lacks any multiplayer experience it more than makes up for it with an extensive single player, its longevity lies in its near infinite ways to approach the game. Not to mention the achievement points for completing the game without being seen. That in itself adds 30 hours of replayability. It is a full single player experience that offers a lengthy enjoyable play-through as well as the option to go back and try a different approach.
8
MOVIE Comedy or horror? Hmm we’re not sure with this one. The Scream franchise is back with this fourth instalment containing a portion of the original cast and of course, director Wes Craven. So what can you expect from the latest chapter of the slasher series? Pretty much the same as the previous three movies we’re afraid. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is finishing promoting her autobiography “Out of Darkness” where it all took place, Woodsboro, when it becomes apparent that there is yet another ghostface roaming the town. This sees feisty reporter Gale Weathers-Riley (Courtney Cox) step up in an attempt to rid herself of writer’s block and help husband Sherriff Dewey (David Arquette) trace the elusive killer. Unfortunately they are not quick enough and the death toll continues to rise while Sidney stays with her aunt in order to protect her niece Jill (Emma Roberts) who is painfully watching her friends being slaughtered before her eyes. Trust is at an all time low. Don’t expect too much in the form of surprises during this film. In 1996 Craven’s creation was seen as an innovative movie, commenting on conventions and clichés that came with the slasher genre. Now however it seems that four films and fifteen years later, that this idea has become as stale as last month’s bread. This will produce less a scream, more a feeble shriek.
They’re back! The Inbetweeners movie sees the return of our four favourite socially awkward teenagers and they are being welcomed with open arms. Expect plenty of vulgarity and a few British holiday stereotypes as Will (Simon Bird) and the gang take a trip to Malia! School’s out, Simon (Joe Thomas) has been dumped by his first love, Carli (Emily Head) and so Jay (James Buckley) devises a master plan involving the group going on a rowdy lad’s holiday in an attempt to pick up girls. “It’ll be like shooting clunge in a barrel.” If you saw the last three series, you know this won’t be the case. We won’t give too much away but be prepared for the kind of humour that will leave you cringing as you peek over the cinema chair in front of you. Dim-witted Neil’s (Blake Harrison) body-popping is a definite highlight. All-mouth Jay is by far the star of the show as he spiels off the rude, sex-influenced gags which will leave your sides aching for the next week at least, but believe us, it’s more than worth it. The only negative thing that can be said about this film is that we can’t be sure of a sequel in the future, but let’s hope!
Does the world really need a medieval comedy? Well if it’s starring Danny Mcbride, James Franco and the beautiful Natalie Portman, then we can confirm that the answer is yes. Your Highness could be seen as ye olde prequele to the successful stoner comedy Pineapple Express and it features the same immature, crude humour all of which seemed to go down so well last time. Director David Gordon Green’s medieval fairytale with a pot-influenced twist sees the brothers Prince Fabeous (Franco) and Prince Thadeous (McBride) come together on a quest to rescue the former’s fiancée, Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel). This is a chance for the frequently out-of-favour Thadeous to up his game in the eyes of his stern father, King Tallious (Charles Dance). The two siblings ride less-than-majestically towards the lair of evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux) who has trapped Belladonna in his dungeon. The two are against the clock to stop Leezar performing the Satanic ceremony, “The Fuckening” on the fair maiden in order to breed a dragon (we’ll let you do the guessing as to what the ceremony involves). Along the way they come across a warrior queen in the form of a chastity-belt bearing Portman, who proves to be considerably hard to handle. Your sides won’t be splitting during this film but its sometime ridiculous humour will definitely provide a couple of chuckles - especially when you hear McBride’s and Franco’s attempt at an English accent.
No, you’re not seeing things, just when you thought it was over yet another Final Destination movie has been unleashed. They are predictable, and we all know how the film is going to end, yet we can’t help but flock to the cinema to see how each character is going to come to his or her abrupt end. When Sam (Nicolas D’Agosto) has a vision of the bridge they are about to cross collapsing it’s pretty obvious where the films going to go. In his vision Sam witnesses the death of his fellow co-workers which when he wakes up leads him to get off the bus with some of the group, his ex-girlfriend Molly (Emma Bell) being one of them. As we have come to expect, what Sam envisaged, happens. It’s at the memorial service for the victims that the group are warned by the coroner that death is after them, like they didn’t know, and as of then the extravagant fatalities begin. The only question is, will someone escape the clutches of the Grim Reaper? The previous Final Destination films were not renowned for the class acting, and this addition is no exception. It may be predictable, but it is well worth a watch just to see how unbelievably inventive the cast have been when it comes to the gory deaths. Warning, not for the feint-hearted!
TAKING BACK SUNDAY LIVE REVIEW BATH PAVILLION AUGUST 31st First up we have The Xcerts; these Scottish boy wonders have been touring the UK extremely hard this year and their fan base is starting to grow slowly but surely. They played the Rock Sound exposure tour and they've also hit many festivals over the summer, so we for one were pretty excited to see these guys perform. First things first, these guys do not sound like Biffy Clyro live or on record it annoys me so much that pretty much every Scottish alternative band out there gets compared to Biffy Clyro, The Xcerts are noting like these guys. The band are confident on stage and they are not afraid to show off what they’re capable of, tunes like 'Mannequin' get some of the crowd moving but sadly a full mosh pit doesn't take place for the band tonight. The lead singer again shows of his confidence on the last song as he enters the crowd repeating the last vocal lines on the last song. We love these guys and if they continue to perform live and get the great slots they've been getting, then it is really just a matter of time before their fan base explodes. Next up we have The New Regime, a lot of you will know the lead singer as he used to drum in Lostprophets so before they even hit the stage expectations were pretty high. Llan Rubin (Lead Singer) had a red top on and rest of the band had a black top on, so this kind of instantly clarified to us the attention was meant to be on him, and so it should be as sadly the rest of the band were not being as confident as their lead singer. The great thing about The New Regime is they were different, and by that I mean they were not that standard support band that you fall asleep too because you've seen it all before, they were a band that do show potential and they managed to keep your attention as you were never to sure where the songs were going, and we mean that in a positive way. In short it kind of felt like Wolfmother fell into a blender with Lostprophets? Hopefully that will help you pinpoint their sound... So Taking Back Sunday hit the stage, and the crowd go manic, from the front to the back people started to mosh straight away. The great thing to notice is that the first song was 'El Paso' so this instantly shows us that 1) Everyone was pretty damn excited to see the newly reformed band, and 2) The new album has gone down a treat. The set continues with tunes like 'MakeDamnSure' and 'Error Operator' keeping the mosh pit in constant motion. It was great to see a lot of the older songs such as 'Timberwolves of New Jersey' performed live with John Nolan and Shaun Cooper involved, and it also showed that the current formation was solid and there clearly won't be any change in that anytime to soon. We also got treated to cover of 'Existentialism on prom night' which I am sure some of you will know is a Straylight Run cover, although I was confused to start with to see Adam Lazzara singing the lead vocals on this track, it was also great because it again showed to the crowd that the current formation were comfortable with their current line-up and the past is well and truly behind them. The set really did leave me excited for the future of Taking Back Sunday and I for one cannot wait to see them again. AD
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